Luigina Ciolfi

Methodological Challenges and Innovations in Mobilities Research

Abstract This article introduces a collection of methodological reflections on mobilities research, and additionally discusses the general status of methodology in the scholarship. Fast advancements on empirical and conceptual levels of mobilities studies have not been equivalently matched by efforts on the methodological front. While microsociological and phenomenological approaches are predominant in the scholarship, large‐scale studies on mobility tend not to systematically analyse research frameworks used in the process of knowledge production. The articles featured in this special section examine some of the methodological challenges and innovations arising within several topical strains of mobilities studies. This introductory article argues that multi‐scalar and critical methodologies are necessary for further expanding the analytical and interventional possibilities of a mobilities research agenda.

Integrating material and digital: a new way for cultural heritage

to a greater level of detail than its paper counterpart, but the feeling of being in the archive, the emotion of touching the same paper as the master, and the smell of dust and years past are what makes the experience unique and unforgettable. Emotion, affect, and sensation are essential parts of the experience of heritage, “[y]et museums’ preference for the information over the material, and for learning over [T]he museum’s preoccupation with the information and the way it is juxtaposed to objects ... immediately takes the museum visitor one step beyond the material, physical thing they see displayed before them, away from the emotional and other possibilities that may lie in their sensory interaction with it. —Sandra Dudley [1]

Understanding spaces as places: extending interaction design paradigms

This short paper focuses on some issues involved in the design of ubiquitous technologies and their integration within physical spaces. Current design methodologies and techniques do not explicitly consider the importance of gaining a full understanding of the human experience of space when designing technologies that will pervade and become an integral part of our physical environment. This paper is specifically focused on the importance of considering spaces as places, and of analysing those features of a place that are going to shape users’ interactions with technologically enhanced environments. It also examines the future implications that this approach may have on theoretical and methodological aspects of interaction design.

Using Tangible Smart Replicas as Controls for an Interactive Museum Exhibition

This paper presents the design, creation and use of tangible smart replicas in a large-scale museum exhibition. We describe the design rationale for the replicas, the process used in their creation, as well as the implementation and deployment of these replicas in a live museum exhibition. Deployment of the exhibition resulted in over 14000 visitors interacting with the system during the 6 months that the exhibition was open. Based on log data, interviews and observations, we examine the reaction to these smart replicas from the point of view of the museum curators and also of the museums visitors and reflect on the fulfillment of our expectations.

Including Visitor Contributions in Cultural Heritage Installations: Designing for Participation

Abstract In this paper we discuss how an interaction design perspective on the design of interactive artefacts in public spaces can encourage us to explore certain issues concerning the inclusion of visitor input into our installations. We see the role of technology as supporting peoples experiences of heritage–moving away from simple delivery of information towards enabling visitors to add to the content of the exhibition. This approach encourages active reflection, discussion and appropriation in the tradition of best practice in human-centred interaction (HCI) design. In this paper we discuss two exhibitions/installations in which we have been involved, Re-Tracing the Past and The Shannon Portal. The former was developed with the objective of engaging visitors and enhancing their overall experience of a personal museum collection; the latter had the goal of encouraging visitors and travellers to share their experience of Ireland. We then discuss the impact of this design strategy and analyse the role of visitors’ contributions to each exhibit, and the particular interactions between participants and the content they produced.

Unearthing Virtual History: Using Diverse Interfaces to Reveal Hidden Virtual Worlds

We describe an application in which museum visitors hunt for virtual history outdoors, capture it, and bring it back indoors for detailed inspection. This application provides visitors with ubiquitous access to a parallel virtual world as they move through an extended physical space. Diverse devices, including mobile wireless interfaces for locating hotspots of virtual activity outdoors, provide radically different experiences of the virtual depending upon location, task, and available equipment. Initial reflections suggest that the physical design of such devices needs careful attention so as to encourage an appropriate style of use. We also consider the extension of our experience to support enacted scenes. Finally, we discuss potential benefits of using diverse devices to make a shared underlying virtual world ubiquitously available throughout physical space.

Designing for meaningful visitor engagement at a living history museum

This paper presents an interactive installation designed to facilitate and support visitor engagement in a living history museum. Little research thus far has explored how interaction design can bring added value to living history museums, although they present great potential for participation, interactivity and engagement. We discuss the design rationale for the prototype installation we have developed for a living history museum called Bunratty Folk Park, and present exemplars of empirical data showing how the system merged into the site facilitating an engaging experience for a particular category of visitors.

Designing hybrid places: merging interaction design, ubiquitous technologies and geographies of the museum space

In this paper we discuss how geographical notions of space and place can aid designers in creating meaningful interactions between end users and technologically augmented physical spaces—specifically museums. We review the literature that discusses the use of spatial concepts and metaphors within the interaction design field and discuss several examples of interactive museum installations. We then describe how we have incorporated our understanding of place and human experience into the design and development of a hybrid museum space: an interactive exhibition entitled ‘Re-Tracing the Past’ at the Hunt Museum in Limerick, Ireland.

The Collaborative Work of Heritage: Open Challenges for CSCW

This paper discusses seminal contributions by and current open challenges for CSCW in the study of cultural heritage practices. It provides an overview of key issues relating to social and cooperative interactions—particularly around the design and use of technology—at heritage sites that have emerged in CSCW, and pertaining the conduct of visitors, the design and evaluation of interactive installations for guidance and access, and the creation of novel artistic performances. The paper then presents a set of open challenges for future CSCW work, particularly regarding the very re-definition of heritage in light of the social and collaborative practices that have arisen in recent years within the museum and heritage professionals community, and the emergence of new roles and practices for organisations, staff, visitors and related stakeholders. The paper aims at consolidating the range of contributions that CSCW has made to cultural heritage and at outlining key issues and challenges for future research in this domain.

Place as dialogue: understanding and supporting the museum experience

This paper presents a dialogical approach to place, people and technology in museums. The approach has been developed in response to concern for locative experience in Interaction Design, an approach to the design and experience of interactive technologies that emphasises the particular place in which the technologies are deployed and the locative aspects of experience. Our approach emphasises the pivotal role played by a wide variety of relationships in experience and suggests a set of dimensions of experience that have been useful in our interpretations of museum experience: relational, open, sense making, narrative, and spatio‐temporal. In the process of describing the approach, the paper explains and exemplifies the potential for Interaction Design to bring people, for example staff and visitors, into the centre of technological mediation of heritage experience. It does this with specific reference to the mediation of museum experience and uses the design and evaluation of a particular museum exhibition to support its claims.