Built heritage objects possess multiple types of information, varying from simple, factual aspects to more complex qualitative information and values, such as the architectural qualities, the construction techniques, or symbolic meanings of monuments. This qualitative information is relatively difficult to communicate using the conventional ways like museum labels or audio guides. Nonetheless, tangible interaction is a promising paradigm for communicating tacit information, its qualities have been demonstrated in a wide range of applications in different realms. Therefore, this study investigates how tangible interaction can enable the communication of qualitative information of built heritage to lay visitors. The main objectives of this study are communicating tacit and architectural qualities of built heritage in a physical form, investigating the effect of tangible interaction on social interaction among heritage visitors, and enhancing visitors' in-situ experience of built heritage or 1:1 replicas. Our early findings indicate the capability of tangible interaction for engaging museum visitors to accomplish additional endeavors, and facilitating their understanding of cultural values and architectural qualities of built heritage.

Communication is one of the primary functions of museums and heritage environments. Museum artefacts possess vast amounts of information, which has to be communicated to the general public. This information ranges from explicit knowledge which is easy to document and to convey (e.g. names, dates, numbers, etc.), to more qualitative information and tacit knowledge which is more challenging to document, to measure and to communicate. However, the latter is more valuable because it provides context, experiences, practices, and competences. For communicating this type of information, museums apply different methods, ranging from oral narrative, to more embedded interactive technologies for storytelling such as virtual and augmented reality applications. Nevertheless, museums recently began to design and deploy Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) in order to physicalize the experience with museum objects. For instance, tangible smart replicas have been used in museum exhibitions to provide an additional layer (narrative content) of story-telling on top of explicit information presented on text labels next to the original objects. Also, anecdotal evidence shows that the touch and manipulation affordances of TUIs in interactive exhibits tend to attract more visitors, even persuade them to explore further and deeper. According to the museum communication model of Hooper-Greenhill, we consider that tangible interaction approach is as a promising communication medium for enabling museum visitors to turn from passive receivers to active users by interpreting their experiences according to a set of individual and social factors. This paper therefore introduces the concept of “Phygital Museum Experience” (PhyMEx), the integration of digital technology ‘into’ physical reality, as a potential medium for more enriched and playful communication of heritage values and qualities. We propose that PhyMEx should enable the exploitation of typical advantages of both digital and physical reality, and that distinct categories of phygital can be recognized based on: 1) the level of physical affordance; and 2) in how far the technology is integrated into the physical reality. We argue also that this approach has several objectives; (a) it makes the museum experience more collaborative and enhances social interaction, (b) it actively engages young museum visitors by allowing them physically explore the museum collections, and (c) it stimulates subtle learning experiences by communicating heritage information during interactions and experimentations. The paper offers a proposed approach of PhyMEx as a one step forward towards achieving an effective communication with heritage museums’ collections in the Gulf. The future implementation and application of the proposed approach will be tested by museum visitors at selected Gulf museums. The findings, analysis and required refinements of this approach will be reported accordingly.

Communication is one of the primary functions of museums and heritage environments. Museum artefacts possess vast amounts of information, which has to be communicated to the general public. This information ranges from explicit knowledge which is easy to document and to convey (e.g. names, dates, numbers, etc.), to more qualitative information and tacit knowledge which is more challenging to document, to measure and to communicate. However, the latter is more valuable because it provides context, experiences, practices, and competences. For communicating this type of information, museums apply different methods, ranging from oral narrative, to more embedded interactive technologies for storytelling such as virtual and augmented reality applications. Nevertheless, museums recently began to design and deploy Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) in order to physicalize the experience with museum objects. For instance, tangible smart replicas have been used in museum exhibitions to provide an additional layer (narrative content) of story-telling on top of explicit information presented on text labels next to the original objects. Also, anecdotal evidence shows that the touch and manipulation affordances of TUIs in interactive exhibits tend to attract more visitors, even persuade them to explore further and deeper. According to the museum communication model of Hooper-Greenhill, we consider that tangible interaction approach is as a promising communication medium for enabling museum visitors to turn from passive receivers to active users by interpreting their experiences according to a set of individual and social factors. This paper therefore introduces the concept of “Phygital Museum Experience” (PhyMEx), the integration of digital technology ‘into’ physical reality, as a potential medium for more enriched and playful communication of heritage values and qualities. We propose that PhyMEx should enable the exploitation of typical advantages of both digital and physical reality, and that distinct categories of phygital can be recognized based on: 1) the level of physical affordance; and 2) in how far the technology is integrated into the physical reality. We argue also that this approach has several objectives; (a) it makes the museum experience more collaborative and enhances social interaction, (b) it actively engages young museum visitors by allowing them physically explore the museum collections, and (c) it stimulates subtle learning experiences by communicating heritage information during interactions and experimentations. The paper offers a proposed approach of PhyMEx as a one step forward towards achieving an effective communication with heritage museums’ collections in the Gulf. The future implementation and application of the proposed approach will be tested by museum visitors at selected Gulf museums. The findings, analysis and required refinements of this approach will be reported accordingly.

Each built heritage artifact possesses multiple types of information, varying from simple, factual aspects to more complex qualitative and tacit qualities and values like the architectural symbolism of a monument. This paper investigates how tangible interaction can enable the communication of qualitative information of built heritage to lay visitors. Through a comparative, field study in a real-world museum context, we examined how the tangible characteristics of an interactive prototype museum installation influence how visitors perceive a particular story. The communicated story relates a historical journey in ancient Egypt to the physical and architectural characteristics of the entrance colonnade at the Djoser Complex in Saqqara. The first preliminary findings indicate how tangible interaction is able to engage museum visitors more to accomplish additional efforts, facilitating a vivid understanding of cultural values and architectural qualities of built heritage.

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Designing, implementing and evaluating interactive design that is validated in a European context, may deliver different results when being studied in an Arab context, especially when evaluated in-the-wild. In this position paper, we discuss our expectations of two studies that were already conducted in a European context, and will be repeated in an Egyptian context. We reflect on the potential impact of the findings on the design, evaluation methods and initial findings.

Meanings and values of built heritage vary from factual and explicit meanings which are relatively easy to present, to more tacit knowledge, which is typically more challenging to communicate due to its implicit and often abstract character. In this paper, we investigate how tangible interaction influences the communication of this tacit knowledge of built heritage, and how it affects the experience of visitors. Through a between-group comparative study in a real-world museum context, we examined how the tangible characteristics of an interactive prototype museum installation influence how visitors perceive a particular story containing tacit heritage knowledge. The communicated story relates a historical journey in ancient Egypt to the physical and architectural characteristics of the entrance colonnade at the Djoser Complex in Saqqara. Our experimental conditions consisted of an interactive navigation (input) and a passive representation (output) components, ranging from traditional digital displays to fully tangible means of interaction. We report on our findings, which showed various differences and commonalities between our three experimental conditions. We conclude with a number of discussion points and design recommendations: (a) to strive for balance between navigation and representation modalities in terms of affordance and the required cognitive effort; (b) to take advantage of physical representation and grasping, such as conveying particular physical details and characteristics; and (c) to consider design aspects of embodiment, physical abstraction and materiality for future research or potential further development of communicating the meanings and values of heritage.

Meanings and values of built heritage vary from factual and explicit meanings which are relatively easy to present, to more tacit knowledge, which is typically more challenging to communicate due to its implicit and often abstract character. In this paper, we investigate how tangible interaction influences the communication of this tacit knowledge of built heritage, and how it affects the experience of visitors. Through a between-group comparative study in a real-world museum context, we examined how the tangible characteristics of an interactive prototype museum installation influence how visitors perceive a particular story containing tacit heritage knowledge. The communicated story relates a historical journey in ancient Egypt to the physical and architectural characteristics of the entrance colonnade at the Djoser Complex in Saqqara. Our experimental conditions consisted of an interactive navigation (input) and a passive representation (output) components, ranging from traditional digital displays to fully tangible means of interaction. We report on our findings, which showed various differences and commonalities between our three experimental conditions. We conclude with a number of discussion points and design recommendations: (a) to strive for balance between navigation and representation modalities in terms of affordance and the required cognitive effort; (b) to take advantage of physical representation and grasping, such as conveying particular physical details and characteristics; and (c) to consider design aspects of embodiment, physical abstraction and materiality for future research or potential further development of communicating the meanings and values of heritage.

Understanding the spatial transformation of architectural heritage over time is crucial for documentation and conservation purposes, but also for communicating the salient architectural features of the buildings’ evolution to the public at large. With the rapid evolution of physical computing technologies such as electronics, sensors and digital projections, we believe that the technique of projection mapping offers great potential in communicating heritage in-situ because its graphical depiction on the heritage itself can more directly relate to the real context in more experiential ways. Furthermore, digital projections can include various interactive functionalities that together with its architectural size provide an immersive experience that is dynamic and adaptable to the interests of the visitors. Consequently, this paper aims to investigate the deployment of an interactive projection mapping installation in-situ which can be steered by a tangible user interface (TUI). Through an in-the-wild study, we deployed a mixed-method evaluation to investigate how such an interactive projection mapping enhances the communication of the spatiotemporal transformation of a medieval chapel that occurred during the last 850 years. Our findings show how the in-situ projection positively affects visitors’ understanding and memorability of the aesthetic features, and how its combination with a tangible interface enhances the communication of the spatial features of the chapel over time, and allows for more social interaction among them. The paper concludes with several discussion points and recommendations for applying interactive projection mapping and TUIs in the context of architectural heritage.

Context is crucial for understanding meanings and values of heritage. Several heritage artifacts from recently destroyed monuments are exhibited in different museums around the world. As such contextualizing those isolated heritage artifacts enables museums to communicate architectural and spatial qualities of the original context to their visitors. With the rapid evolution of digital technologies, museums started to incorporate Augmented Reality (AR) to present and interpret their collections in more appealing and exciting ways. AR allows both an enrichment of heritage communication, and also encouragement of interactivity in museums. Through a field study in a real-world museum environment, we investigated how AR enhances the communication of the original context of an isolated artifact from the Nimrud palace in Iraq. We deployed a mixed-method evaluation methodology that led to an effective and engaging communication of the architectural context of that artifact, particularly perceiving and recalling architectural features and spatial dimensions. We conclude the paper with a set of discussion points about how AR positively affects visitors’ memorability of architectural qualities, and how it provokes their curiosity to explore more information. We highlight some considerations about AR visualization, such as how levels of embellishment direct user’s focus of attention, and which aspects should be considered when using AR abstract visualization to communicate heritage. We outline several design recommendations to overcome current AR usability issues in museums about intuition, freedom of movement, and age-related differences.