Virtual reality (VR) in museum exhibitions often centers on the person using a head-mounted display (HMD), overlooking the experience of co-located visitors. We conducted a user study with 25 participants, using a prototype museum exhibit featuring VR content, one HMD, a tangible controller, and a public display. Our findings identified four user roles: HMD User, Guide, Observer, and Avoidant Participant, shaped by the design, usability, and social context. Guides emerged to assist others, partly compensating for the usability and lack of embedded instructions. Observer and Avoidant roles revealed missed opportunities for interaction. Our findings highlight the value of designing for asymmetric participation to support varied and inclusive engagement in group settings with VR in museum settings, and we present design implications to better support this.

Grounded in Sámi and other Indigenous epistemologies that value reciprocity and relational ethics, this poster explores speculative design as an ethical and community-oriented approach to envisioning Sámi digital storytelling futures. Using speculative design as a method of reflection rather than prediction, it presents three speculative design explorations that imagine how technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) could be shaped through Sámi values of care, reciprocity, and linguistic sovereignty. These concepts are not cultural representations but provocations for dialogue on how Indigenous knowledge systems and digital design might co-evolve. By centring Indigenous agency, data sovereignty, and storytelling protocols, this study contributes to emerging discussions in Indigenous Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) and Indigenous futurisms, highlighting how technology can act as a relational partner in sustaining living relations with story, place, and language.

We investigate the integration of embodied agents within the automotive environment to enhance driver guidance. We explore the concept through two user studies. Through a gesture elicitation study using motion capture technology, we first identified a set of whole-body gestures suitable for in-car driver assistance. We then recreated the selected gestures by acting them out and recording them as animations. The selected gestures were then evaluated and mapped to different driving-related scenarios in the second study conducted in a simulated in-car condition. The most promising gestures for an embodied in-car driving assistant were pointing towards a certain direction, showing warning signs by crossing the arms either on the chest or arms on top of the head, and performing waving gestures to alert or to grasp the driver’s attention. By charting the potential signaling gestures, we aim to advance the development of more intuitive in-car guidance systems, ultimately promoting road safety.

Figure 1: An inaccessible graveyard (left), virtually modelled (center), and visited using a custom interface designed for a museum setting (right).

This research explores the design of interactive technologies for the cultural heritage contexts, such as museums. It involves collaboration with multidisciplinary teams, addressing ethical and sensitive themes related to history and culture. The research applies user-centric and participatory design methodology. During the process, a framework has been created to support the design process, facilitating collaboration among experts when designing interactive experiences. My work also explores what makes for an engaging and respectful experience for a cultural heritage exhibition. This work contributes to integrating technology in cultural heritage, enriching visitor experiences while honoring cultural values and narratives.

Numerous digital games and media with historical themes aim to educate or engage audiences with heritage. When developing a historical video game, some of the most critical design decisions are centered around finding the balance between an accurate presentation of historical facts and engaging gameplay. This paper examines the game developer's role in selecting and presenting historical content through a case study of a mobile game development process. The design choices and developers' positions related to using historical facts are examined through thematic analysis of interview data and game design documents. Recurring themes in the data reveal a constant interplay between game features and historical content, supported by historical knowledge and technology. In small teams, individual developers often make crucial design decisions while performing multiple roles. As key findings, we report that the resourcing and timing of historical research significantly impacts developers' decisions, and note varying degrees of interest in historical accuracy within the development team.

We investigate the user experience of taking a remote museum tour with 360 video technologies. We compare the experience of viewing a 360 video feed on a laptop screen vs. a 360 virtual reality (VR) video experienced through a head-mounted display (HMD). Our salient findings from a user study (n = 10) highlight that HMD VR provides a better immersion and sense of control for users. However, the HMD VR user experience suffers from the lack of personal contact, such as eye contact with the guide, discontinuities in the visual presentation, and missing multimodal contextual cues. The research contributes to the design of remote tourism services.