Museums and exhibitions can benefit from immersive technologies by embodying visitors in rich interactive environments, where they can experience digitally reconstructed scenes and stories of the past. Nevertheless, public-space Virtual Reality (VR) interactions need to be short in duration, carefully designed to communicate the intended message, and optimized for the user experience, especially for first-time users. This paper contributes to the ongoing research on user experience in VR for cultural heritage through the presentation of the design and user evaluation of an installation that immerses users on board a historic sailing ship and has been part of a museum exhibition. We present the process of reconstructing the ship and developing the application with emphasis on design choices about the user experience (scene presentation, content delivery, navigation and interaction modes, assistance, etc.). We have performed a thorough user experience evaluation and present its results and our reflections on design issues regarding public VR installations for museums. • Historic ship reconstructed in VR using photogrammetry and laser scanning. • Developed realistic simulation of ship buoyancy, sail deformation, and motion. • Context-aware interactions designed for first-time museum VR visitors. • Evaluated user experience and sense of presence in lab and museum settings. • Guidelines for balancing realism, usability and learning in public VR exhibits.

Expert reviews of mobile games for cultural heritage (MG-CH) may predictively assess various aspects of game and content design in an iterative development process. They are not common because finding experts with knowledge for all aspects of MG-CH is difficult, while related heuristic sets are lengthy. Furthermore, ecologically valid evaluations of MG-CH must be performed in the field and examine various dimensions of playability, including gameplay, usability, functionality, and contextual factors about the location and the cultural content. To address those challenges, we have constructed a formative, empirical design review method of MG-CH, which requires experts to perform field playtesting in pairs, with minimal researcher intervention. We have refined the approach to collect data and insights about various aspects of playability; and then applied it in the evaluation of two MG-CH for UNESCO intangible CH sites that follow the same system and gameplay design. We found that the method yields many performance indicators and playability findings; facilitates participants to propose thoughtful recommendations; and affords in-situ production of cultural content.

Mid-air interaction is a distinct style of natural HCI (Human-Computer Interaction). In mid-air interaction, users make use of their whole body—with a strong focus on hands—and apply gestures, postures, and movements to interact with digital content on distant displays or remote devices. Although the idea of exploiting body movements and gestures in HCI is not new, mid-air interaction is now possible due to the availability of reasonably priced depth cameras and sensors. This article presents a systematic review of empirical research in mid-air interaction, based on a corpus of 104 publications from 2011 to 2018. The review includes: (a) a retrospective on mid-air interaction, which outlines its historical development and clarifications on important concepts; (b) current application domains of mid-air interaction; (c) user requirements methods, focusing on gesture elicitation studies; (d) dimensions of prototyping and design; (e) empirical evaluation methods and issues; (f) a discussion on several trends and challenges for further research and development.

Image collections are a common interaction pattern for 2D interfaces, however mid-air user interaction with collections has received little attention. We present a controlled experiment (within-groups, n=24) comparing three sets of hand gestures for mid-air browsing and selection in image collections, that were identified out of an elicitation study, using MS Kinect. Each set includes cursor-less gestures for browsing (sideways hand extension, wheel and swipe) and for selection/deselection (hand-up/hand-down). Task success was universal with high accuracy and few errors for all gestures. Sideways extension outperforms swipe and perceived effort for this gesture is significantly lower. Both gestures outperform wheel. We suggest that from a usability perspective, sideways hand extension should be preferred for browsing image galleries, if no other contextual factors apply. Also, the results of the elicitation study, in which most users proposed the swipe gesture for browsing, were not confirmed by the controlled usability experiment. This suggests a combined use of elicitation studies with rigorous usability testing, especially when gestures for particular user interface design patterns are sought.

Logic Programming (LP) is an essential part of many academic curricula and it is extensively employed in the field of Artificial Intelligence. However, being based on a fundamentally different paradigm and lacking any visual tools for inexperienced users, its teaching may lead to confusion and low student motivation. Virtual Worlds (VWs) may help overcome these obstacles, as they have been successfully used in computer programming education. In this paper we present the MeLoISE platform (Meaningful Logical Interpretations of Simulated Environments) for teaching LP in VWs, through which students can experience a collaborative visual interface to the Prolog programming language. We also present an evaluation of MeLoISE, which was conducted during a learning activity that engaged students in collaborative programming for 2 problem scenarios. Students performed very well and were enthusiastic with the new environment.

Website redesign is a complex task that requires the organised use of design methods and guidelines as well as meaningful assessments. An important reason for website redesign is to enhance the usability and accessibility for ‘non-traditional’ user groups like the older population. The paper presents a case study of the redesign of a touristic web portal in order for it to be senior-friendly. The redesign process involved: (a) identification of a set of 7 principles and 45 guidelines (7p/45g) for web design for older adults; (b) heuristic evaluation of the original website on the basis of the identified 7p/45g set; (c) redesign of the website in an interactive online prototype; and (d) comparative summative usability evaluation, which involved 12 older users and post hoc interviews and questionnaires. The results showed that the redesigned website was significantly more usable and acceptable than the original. This study makes two contributions in the field: first, it outlines a web redesign process for older adults, which is effective in terms of time and cost, making use of various assessments of experts and users; second, it presents the application of this process in a manner that can be adopted and repeated in other redesign cases.

The practice of teaching and learning human–computer interaction (HCI) design has to develop its own approaches that balance method and technology use with reflective and situated practice. This article presents our HCI design studio course that makes a combined use of constructivist pedagogies and virtual worlds aiming to aid students critically review and reflect on the use of related methods and technologies in design and to cultivate more general skills like self-directed learning, intrinsic motivation, and critical thinking. Our HCI design studio course can be thought of as an iterative and incremental teaching and learning process that blends HCI methods, design practice, and technology between a real and a virtual design studio. The course introduces problem-based learning to the pedagogies of project-based learning and studio-based learning currently employed in most HCI design studios. The positive student responses and our reflection and experiences focusing on a number of challenges for further implementation are also outlined.

This article presents an evaluation of web-based, asynchronous e-learning in academic education, reflecting on its adoption and use in conjunction to teaching in the classroom. The principal aim of the study was to identify the implications of asynchronous e-learning to (a) students' and teachers' overall satisfaction and perceived performance, (b) the organization and management of learning, and (c) social interaction and collaboration between/among students and teachers. The results provide insights for important interaction design and development issues in e-learning such as note-taking and annotations on e-learning content, student comprehension and satisfaction, skipping courses, cost-effective educational and time management, social awareness, collaboration, “flaming,” and “border-crossing.” The study reports on issues that need to be considered by human–computer interaction researchers, interaction design practitioners, and usability professionals and are complementary to usability and accessibility work in e-learning evaluation studies.