Effect of Dramatic Elements on Engagement in an Augmented Reality Experience for a Museum

The long-term goal of this work is to improve the experience of museum visitors with the help of Augmented Reality (AR) experiences for informing the visitors about the displayed exhibits through other means than museum labels, as these either lacked information or were placed inconveniently at the exhibitions. This paper proposes the integration of Brenda Laurel’s concept of Dramatic Interaction by utilizing different non-playable characters (NPC) that serve as the users’ companions during their visits to various exhibits. This approach aims to enhance the user’s level of engagement which would positively influence their overall experience at the museum. The proposed solution was evaluated by comparing two versions of the developed system, one makes use of different unique NPCs in its design, while the other instead uses a single narrator. A statistical test was performed on the collected data and the results indicated that all but one aspect of engagement did not appear significantly different between the two evaluated conditions. Telling the story of artifacts through different NPCs seemed to provide a more fun experience to users, when compared to the stories being told by one narrator.