We describe the design of Loci Stories – a networked storytelling cabinet which uses voice recognition to tell colourful and unique stories from volunteers working at an English country hall. Loci Stories was created as part of a wider co-design research within heritage venues that sought to improve interpretation and designs approaches engaging with polyvocality. The work aimed to nuance existing authorised heritage discourse interpretations by championing the stories of volunteers who have a unique perspective on the place. We contribute an account of our design and its evaluation findings to propose four “textures” of polyvocality inspired by music theory – monophony, homophony, polyphony, and cacophony. We discuss Loci Stories through the lens of these textures and situate our work in furthering the design space of polyvocal heritage-based interaction design.

Volunteers are an underused but important resource in presenting plural heritages within large heritage organizations. We report on a qualitative study at a heritage site in the UK which combined explorations of volunteers' practice and digital design. The study comprised of observational fieldwork with co-creative activities across eight linked workshops, where we explored the site with volunteers, and how we might leverage existing working structures to make new design prototypes. Our collective account contributes new insights on working with volunteers and the opportunities that arise from acknowledging them as genius loci - recognising them as experts of their own experience and capturing and supporting their skills as storytellers. Working with the volunteering staff in a co-design process we created innovative designs including our Un-authorised View, which draws out the unique perspectives and the personal stories at heritage destinations.