An interaction device to foster discussions and engagement in museums

Abstract

Museums propose more and more digital devices to enrich the visits. However, these devices can take much of the visitor's attention and hinder the social dimension of the visit. We propose a device for groups. It provides a non-intrusive interaction with the aim to foster discussions between visitors. The device has been deployed and experimented in a fine art museum. We describe in this article the design of the device as well as the experiment and results. It allowed us to validate acceptability and usability of the device and shows a positive effect about engagement with the artworks and to a lower extent an effect on discussions between visitors.