Concerns and Challenges Developing Mobile Augmented Reality Experiences for Museum Exhibitions

Abstract

There may be valid reasons why some technologies are readily adopted in museum exhibits, such as audio, video and touchscreen interactives, and others are not, e.g., holography and augmented reality; however, unless we collectively and deliberately experiment with, analyze and report our findings, it is likely that concerns with technologies are based on anecdotes and assumptions rather than empirical data and may be misleading and confusing. We examine concerns and the challenges commonly associated with the use of augmented reality in exhibitions and apply a case study from the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History to assess the veracity of these with this particular technology. Assumptions around detraction, replacement, gimmickry, and onboarding, for example, were not found to be a valid concern. Augmented reality can have high user experience rewards, yet as with any technology, there are technical and socially relevant challenges that should be considered before adopting augmented reality as a user experience.