Identifying the cognitive needs of visitors and content selection parameters for designing the interactive kiosk software for museums

Abstract

This research presents the findings of contextual interviews, visitor survey and behavioural study that were carried out in Indian museums. It originates from the hypothesis that the museum exhibits are unable to express their relevance, historical significance and related knowledge to satisfy the curiosity of visitors. Our objective is to identify the cognitive needs of museum visitors and the content selection parameters for designing the interactive kiosk software, which is expected to be set up in every thematic gallery of the museum. The kiosk software is intended to offer higher level of engaging and learnable experience to the museum visitors. The research involved participation of 100+ visitors in Indian museums. The access restrictions and constraints of museums cause cognitive deprivation of visitors and compromise the quality of experience. Therefore, the interactivity, animations and multimedia capabilities of kiosk software must be focused on overcoming these limitations. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2010.