I-Sho-U: An Innovative Method for Museum Visitor Evaluation

Sarah Kenderdine, Australia/Hong Kong

Technological innovations are rapidly changing the way we experience and interact with information enabling visitors to museums to engage with cultural heritage in transformative ways. With burgeoning investments in these new exhibitions involving advanced display technologies and content production processes, understanding the visitor experience is vital for stakeholders who must balance financial considerations alongside their quest to deliver meaningful, challenging and educative content. However, research into how these new experiences are received and understood by the public remains underdeveloped, bound largely to traditional techniques and quantitatvie data analysis. In response to the need for new evaluation tools, we have developed I Sho U, an interactive interface and data visualization strategy for visitors to participate in describing their experience. I Sho U has been developed at The Applied Laboratory for Interactive Visuzalization and Embodiment; City University of Hong Kong, with design research at Swinburne University. With its tactile interfaces, real-time upload of visitor responses, automatic data analysis and, real-time visualization of aggregated data, I Sho U is an interface that could transform visitor evaluation, with implications for how we design, manage and invest in our museums.