ISSN 2464-4617 (print) WSCG 2016 - 24th Conference on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Computer Vision 2016 ISSN 2464-4625 (CD-ROM) Tiber Valley Virtual Museum: user experience evaluation in the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia Eva Pietroni, Alfonsina Pagano Caterina Poli CNR ITABC Tuscia University via Salaria km 29,300 Largo dell’Università s.n.c. 00015 Monterotondo-Rome Italy 01100 Viterbo, Italy “eva.pietroni”, “alfonsina.pagano”@itabc.cnr.it [email protected] ABSTRACT The paper presents a survey on the user experience related to the Virtual Museum of the Tiber Valley, an innovative VR installation requiring gesture-based interaction, designed and developed by CNR ITABC and permanently accessible at the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome. This research arises from the desire of the authors to verify attractiveness, usability, and communication effectiveness of the system with the end users while having such a multi sensorial experience in the museum. The employed strategy in the survey and the final results will be discussed in comparison with authors’ expectations, outlining best practices out of this massive study. Keywords Virtual Museums, user experience evaluation, gesture-based interaction, virtual reality, emotional storytelling, qualitative and quantitative analyses. 1. INTRODUCTION presence into such VMs has overcome the limits of traditional desktop-based interfaces, opening great Virtual Museums (VMs) have seen a rapid growth in perspectives in human-computer interaction, [Syl08]. the past years given the big effort in producing The chance indeed of simulating the visitor’s always more user-friendly systems, focused on a physical presence inside the cyberspace, by fruitful contamination among narratives, new performing body gestures to interact with not interaction paradigms and sensory immersion in 3D tangible contents, represents a great revolution in the environments. Recently the V-Must project has way of making experience. Once the user’s senses consolidated the idea that virtual museums have not and mind are “embodied” in the artificial to be considered as simple digital reproduction of environment, he becomes able to perceive his body physical museums; whereas they need to be as part of the virtual scene and then interact with the conceived as “aggregators” of different contexts and 3D elements, reaching the sensory immersion in the interpretative layers related to the Cultural Heritage, 3D environment, with greater emotional that are not commonly accessible in the real participation, conceptual engagement and enhanced museums, with particular attention to the learning capabilities, [Wit98], [Sla99]. enhancement of “museum experience through But how can a VM convey such an experience? personalization, interactivity and richness of content” Visual aspects, narratives and interaction interfaces (www.v-must.net). Interaction turns to be of utmost are of primary importance. Gestures represent our importance when we want to make the user really natural language and therefore the most immediate feel involved within the virtual scene. way to interact with the external environment. Thanks to some recent technologies (i.e. motion- However the interface elements still play a crucial capture sensors, head-mounted displays), the sense of role in the user’s recognition of gestures and movements to be performed when facing natural Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of interaction inside virtual reality applications. The this work for personal or classroom use is granted without VMUXE work, an approach to the user experience fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for evaluation for VMs by CNR ITABC, Fraunhofer profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this Institute and Lund University [Goc13], revealed that notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to the linearity and simplicity of the interface elements redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/ highly influence the user’s understanding of what to or a fee. do with VMs and, consequently, the memorization of the interface useful to accomplish the various tasks. Short Papers Proceedings 97 ISBN 978-80-86943-58-9 ISSN 2464-4617 (print) WSCG 2016 - 24th Conference on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Computer Vision 2016 ISSN 2464-4625 (CD-ROM) Moreover, the visual information and the language 2. THE PROJECT need to be short and accurate so to be understood by The Virtual Museum of the Tiber Valley has been a broad audience. This is strengthened also in the conceived in order to increment and disseminate the Etruscanning project (2012) a VR installation by knowledge and the affection towards the territory CNR ITABC allowing the public to explore an north of Rome, crossed by the Tiber river, an area 40 Etruscan tomb reconstructed in its original aspect, km long x 60 km wide. It has been developed by with funerary goods and dead personages inside. The CNR-ITABC in collaboration with E.V.O.CA, tutorial proposed at the begin of this natural supported by Arcus S.p.A. and the Italian Ministry of interaction application (composed by figures and few Cultural Heritage. As the VM aims also at text lines) is welcomed by the users, but it is claimed stimulating people to visit the real places, an to have too much text in the explanation [Pie13]. integrated communicative system and multimedia Instead, during the exploration, storytelling in first installations have been realized, diffused in local person and soundscape have been the most museums and inside more attended and relevant appreciated aspects by the public. The evocative institutions in Rome. reconstruction granted by the system, together with Starting from a cross-disciplinary study and the location inside the Vatican Museums in a documentation of the territory and of its evolution dedicated space without distractions, have been across time (from 3 million years ago until today), underlined to be strength points. 3D representations at different scales have been Therefore, not only the graphics but also the interface realized, from the whole landscape, to specific sites. layout and the stories support the user, by providing The Tiber river is told establishing interconnections an involving and profitable experience. In this sense, among geography, geology, archaeology, the usability evaluation of Imago Bononiae project, architecture, botany, history, literature and by CNR ITABC [Fan15b], confirmed that minimal and explicit visual indicators again help users in the mythology, art. One of the results of the project is an recognition of the the urban landscape, allowing attractive VR application characterized by gesture- them to autonomously “move” inside the 3D scenes. based interaction and an innovative approach in The intense and immersive experience brought the interactive storytelling. It is accessible as permanent majority of the sample to affirm to be stimulated to installation in the National Etruscan Museum of Villa know more about the subject of the VM, by visiting Giulia Museum, in Rome, since December 2014 (see the real city of Bologna or deepening the related Fig.1). This installation is the focus of the current information on the Web. paper. The visualization is distributed on three The importance of the narrative sphere is proved by aligned 65” screens, arranged in a semicircle, in Antonaci et al. who presented a pedagogical study on order to arouse a feeling of immersion and perceptive the “Keys2Rome” exhibition (keys2rome.eu), involvement. The user migrates among different [Ant15], discussing about a natural interaction "avatars” to explore four virtual scenarios: project, Admotum. From direct feedback we can state 1. “On the spirals of the Tiber: the landscape of the that users don’t want to perceive the complexity of origins”: the user can fly, like a bird (using his arms), the technology and they desire to fully enjoy the over an evocative 3D representation of the middle s t o r y t e l l i n g . Te c h n o l o g i e s n e e d t o b e Tiber valley landscape. The topography is rendered “invisible” [Fan15]. The call for digital stories is with an evocative and visionary style; 3D graphics finally confirmed by the V-Must Poll on “Quality resemble a game, the sounds have been composed Labels in Museums” conducted in 2014 [Pes15], where it came out that museum’s audience thinks that redeploying traditional folk songs and flock bells. stories and visual information are more important Crossing magic circles, the user can travel back in than getting access to “how” the 3D reconstructions time, activating movies with stories related to: a) the have been done, supported by some visitors that do geological and geomorphological evolution of the not think that complex interactive systems are more territory; b) the potential landscape in the VIII-VII necessary than stories and 3D visualization. century BC and the birth of cities (3D We can indeed assume that digital narratives, reconstructions). interactive experience and sensory immersion 2. “The secrets of the river”: swimming underwater strongly affect the attraction of VMs, allowing the in the deep of the Tiber like a fish, the visitor can users to better remember the provided cultural experience the memory of the river; he meets information. The case-study we are going to present fluctuating images, iconographies, sounds, literary in the next sections is an attractive on-site virtual fragments taken from