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.

Abstract Face‐to‐face communication relies extensively on non‐verbal cues (NVCs) which complement, or at times dominate, the communicative process as they convey emotions with intense salience, thus definitively affecting interpersonal communication. The capture, transference, and subsequent interpretation of NVCs becomes complicated in computer‐mediated communicative processes, particularly in shared virtual worlds, for which there is growing interest both in regard to NVCs technological integration and their affective impact. This paper presents a between‐groups experimental setup which is facilitated in immersive virtual reality (IVR), and examines NVCs effects on user experience, with special emphasis on degree of attention toward each NVC as an isolated controlled variable of a scripted performance by a virtual character (VC). This study aims to evaluate NVCs fidelity based on the capabilities of the motion‐capture technologies utilized to address cue integration developmental challenges and examines NVCs impact on users' perceived realism of the VC, their empathy toward him, and the degree of social presence experienced. To meet the objectives set the affective impact of low‐fidelity automated NVCs and high‐fidelity real‐time captured NVCs were compared. The findings of the evaluation suggest that although NVCs do impact user experience to an extent, their effects are notably more subtle compared to previous studies.

Abstract Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) represents living cultural expressions and practices that are part of the heritage of a community, and their preservation and transmission are considered highly important. Various methods and tools have been applied so far for the digitization and dissemination of ICH content including a wide range of technologies. Mobile augmented reality is a promising solution along this path that enables the overlap of digital and real-world information in an engaging and efficient manner. Despite the widespread use of AR in cultural heritage, there are not many studies regarding the user experience, the learning outcomes, and the way in which users observe and interact with the virtual content. This paper presents a mobile augmented reality installation that re-enacts the stages of leather tanning process, adopting a novel approach that augments 3D content upon a physical scale model of an old tannery. This approach pursues to transmit the cultural value of traditional craftmanship to visitors of the building and associate its architectural elements to its history and use. A user evaluation was conducted aiming to measure the users’ engagement, learning, and experience using the installation. The encouraging results led to a follow-up study about the impact of the physical scale model on the experience. Two variations of the experience have been studied, one with a physical scale model and one with a digital-only version in a between-subject design. The results of the two studies provide evidence that the proposed approach generated a positive user experience and evident learning gain and was considered easy to use, highlighting its potential to be widely adopted in buildings with architectural value.

Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) systems support several modalities such as body, finger, eye, and facial expressions tracking, thus they can support sign-language-based communication. The combined utilization of tracking technologies requires careful evaluation to ensure high-fidelity transference of body posture, gestures, and facial expressions in real-time. This paper presents the design, development and evaluation of an IVR system utilizing state-of-the-art tracking options. The system is evaluated by certified sign language teachers to detect usability issues and examine appropriate methodology for large-scale follow-up evaluation by users fluent in sign language.

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.

Game-based learning using interactive environments to impart theoretical and applied knowledge for introductory programming courses is divided in two popular approaches: “game making” and “game playing”. Various studies have been conducted following greatly the former approach in secondary and tertiary education with controversial results. However, there has been relatively little research shown about how game playing can be associated with the development of computational thinking and how fundamental programming concepts can be supported by playing games. This work investigates how a simulation game should be designed to support the development of computational problem-solving strategies through the medium of learning fundamental computer science concepts, by proposing a theoretical game playing framework.

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.

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.

In this paper we present an architecture and a methodology for visualising the output of Logic Programs and integrating different technologies such as Logic Programming, Object — Oriented Programming and Virtual Reality. We are currently working on developing a generic tool for 3D visualisation of Logic Programs.