User experience factors, a comparative study of cultural heritage interactive technologies in developing and developed countries

ABSTRACT The cultural heritage (CH) sector has always been looking for preeminent ways to improve visitors’ interactions with their collections through interactive technologies such as applications and websites. However, economic inequality between developed and developing countries hinders the effective and widespread deployment of interactive technologies; therefore, there is a lack of understanding about how visitors interact with such applications in developing countries. Our research aims to understand the current user experience (UX) practices with CH interactive technologies in developing and developed countries and discuss how to improve the interactive application design for museums’ user experience in developing countries. We conducted two field surveys to examine the current UX practices with audio guides and websites at national CH museums in Vietnam and Australia. Additionally, short interviews with interactive service providers and museum interactive service managers confirm the current UX practices and help to fill the UX gaps in developing countries. Our work complements the wealth of knowledge about designing good UX in developed countries and concludes that UX requirements are likely similar between developing and developed countries.