Employing immersion to communicate archaeology: A visitor-centered approach

Abstract: The present thesis examines how the museum visitor’s experience is being transformed by various developments and particularly by the advent of virtual reality technology. The research focused on identifying the problems of communicating the archaeological information to the museum audiences while highlighting best practices and proposing solutions. The immersive function of virtual reality was examined for its potentials to enhance the visitor’s perception, learning process and overall museum experience, while an attempt to restore how immersion is being perceived in the cultural field has been made. At the same time, common misuses and traps were highlighted and followed by instructions for the best employment of virtual reality by the museums. The User Experience (UX) Design approach is proposed by this thesis as a potential standard methodology to be adopted by the museums for interpreting the results of the visitor studies into concrete design solutions. Finally, all the insights gained during this research were accumulated into a framework of principles, aims and guidelines for the optimal museum experience with the incorporation of virtual reality.