Physical heritage objects and assets are related to a vast amount of digital information of different kinds, which are challenging to be communicated to visitors in understandable and engaging ways. Yet recent technological advances promise new opportunities to more tightly merge the digital with the physical world. This paper therefore introduces the concept of “phygital heritage”, 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 phygital heritage 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. The paper also opens the discussion about the potential challenges and concerns which future explorations, scientific research and real-world applications of phygital heritage probably will encounter.

Physical heritage objects and assets are related to a vast amount of digital information of different kinds, which are challenging to be communicated to visitors in understandable and engaging ways. Yet recent technological advances promise new opportunities to more tightly merge the digital with the physical world. This paper therefore introduces the concept of “phygital heritage”, 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 phygital heritage 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. The paper also opens the discussion about the potential challenges and concerns which future explorations, scientific research and real-world applications of phygital heritage probably will encounter.

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.

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.