Smithsonian
National Museum of Natural History's virtual tour affords
the visitor 360
degree views of the exhibits and space.
Image: Smithsonian
National Museum of Natural History/Loren Ybarrondo
(September 21, 2015) Museum
curators planning to develop virtual exhibits online should choose
communication and navigation technologies that match the experience they want
to offer their visitors, according to a team of researchers.
"When curators think about creating a real-world
exhibit, they are thinking about what the theme is and what they want their
visitors to get out of the exhibit," said S. Shyam Sundar, Distinguished
Professor of Communications and co-director of the Media Effects Research
Laboratory. "What this study suggests is that, just like curators need to
be coherent in the content of the exhibit, they need to be conscious of the
tools that they employ in their virtual museums."
Many museum curators hope to create an authentic experience
in their online museums by using technology to mimic aspects of the social,
personal and physical aspects of a real-world museum experience. However, a
more-is-better approach to technology may actually hinder that authentic
experience, the researchers suggest.
In a study, visitors to an online virtual art museum found
that technology tools used to communicate about and navigate through the
exhibits were considered helpful when they were available separately, but less
so when they were offered together. The researchers tested customization tools
that helped the participants create their own art gallery, live-chat technology
to facilitate communication with other visitors and 3-D tool navigation tools
that some participants used to explore the museum.