NODEM 2014 Proceedings

Evaluation of an Interactive Multimedia Exhibit in the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History, South Korea
According to Economou (2008), well-designed applications bring the objects to life and show aspects of their
original context in interesting and engaging ways. To fulfill the potential of the interactive multimedia exhibit,
it is crucial to establish a complementary relationship between the interactive multimedia exhibit and the objects
displayed. In this case, the relationship with the real artefact is especially important, but the results show
that it failed to make a meaningful connection between them. Therefore, we suggest that consideration of this
issue needs to be preceded.
Social Interaction
Missing in this study is the information about the age range of visitors and visitor groups. As we observed visitors
through video, we could not decidedly guess the ages and groups of visitors and accordingly decided not
to consider these variables. However, we assume that interaction behavior could be affected by social group,
such as family. In many cases, children responded directly to the interactive multimedia exhibit and subsequently
wanted to experience it with their family. In this regard, we should carry out further work on dealing
with family interactions.
Conclusion
In this paper, an evaluation of an interactive multimedia exhibit in the National Museum of Korean Contemporary
History in South Korea was carried out in order to ascertain how it had been experienced by its visitors.
From the results it appears to be still valid to take into account Bitgood (1991)’s argument that interactive
exhibits are too often used in a meaningless way. Even though the interactive multimedia exhibit functioned
successfully as an attention drawer, it failed to fulfill its potential to contribute to a meaningful experience
for visitors. Therefore, it is important to thoroughly consider how to use the interactive multimedia exhibit as
a connecting point between both visitor-exhibit and exhibit-exhibit when designing interactive multimedia
exhibits.
Given that this was an in-depth analysis of a specific case, the results may not be generalizable beyond this
specific case, as Hauser et al.(2009) pointed out. Despite this limitation, we believe that the evaluation study
helps to understand the gap between the intended aims of an exhibit and what is in reality achieved, which
in turn will contribute to designing better digitally-mediated museum experiences. There is still much that we
need to know about the complex relationships between visitors, historical objects, and the technological exhibits.
Further studies on these issues would lead to better integration of the existing knowledge about visitor
experiences and insights from empirical research.
References
Allen,S. (2004). Designs for learning: Studying science museum exhibits that do more than entertain. Science Education, 88, 17-33.
Bitgood,S. (1991). Suggested guidelines for designing interactive exhibits. Visitor Behavior, VI(4), 4-11.
Economou,M. (1998). The evaluation of museum multimedia applications: lessons from research. Museum Management and
Curatorship, 17(2), 173-187.
Economou,M.,& Pujol,L. (2007). Evaluating the impact of new technologies on cultural heritage visitors. In J. McLoughlin, J. Kaminski,
& B. Sodagar (Eds.), Technology strategy, management and socio-economic impact (Heritage Management Series, vol. 2; pp. 109-
121). Budapest, Hungary: Archaeolingua.
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