Exploring the potential of visually-rich animated digital storytelling for cultural heritage: the mobile experience of the athens university history museum

Abstract

Digital storytelling in cultural heritage has been recognized as an effective technique for communicating heritage interpretation to the public. This chapter reports on the iterative design, development, and evaluation of a mobile digital storytelling experience for the Athens University History Museum. The experience combines a visually rich, illustrated and animated story of a fictional character, an aspiring young student of the University in 1840, with informational content about the museum’s exhibits. The chapter discusses the insights gained from the composition and integration of the visual form, the design of the story and overall experience, and the evaluation of its impact on visitors, focusing both on the technology and the story perspective. It includes insights for the effective design of digital storytelling experiences, identifying also challenges and needs for future work in the field.