“Listen to the Whole Story!”: Narrative-Driven Learning in Cultural Spaces Through AR

Abstract

Although Extended Reality technologies, such as Augmented Reality (AR), are increasingly used in museums and other public cultural spaces to enhance visitor engagement, relatively little research has explored how the design of interactive digital storytelling and specific modes of content communication influence visitors' cognitive processes and understanding of cultural content. This study contributes to this research gap by empirically examining visitors’ perception and comprehension of cultural content communicated through AR experiences. Building on prior work that aims to enhance visitor experience in cultural settings, the purpose of this research is to explore the role of immersive storytelling in conveying cultural knowledge in ways that are both meaningful and attractive, while also gaining deeper insights into associated learning processes and content understanding. To this end, the paper presents two case studies deploying AR storytelling in a museum and a museum-library, respectively, and reports preliminary findings from two user evaluation studies examining how the cultural content was perceived and understood in each context.