caterina poli

User evaluations on virtual museums (VMs) projects are planned because of the necessity to conduct test-beds and user experience surveys to have feedbacks and improve criticisms in the interactive software applications. From a methodological point of view, no specific direction has been taken both in humanities or computer sciences fields, but several and different strategies are employed whenever we deal with VMs, given the diversity and complexity of each of them, the target, the context of use and so on. CNR ITABC has progressively developed a methodological approach for the user experience evaluation, focusing its attention on the pedagogical aspects and cognitive affordances. In the latest CNR evaluations, especially in the case of the " Virtual Museum of the Tiber Valley " and " Livia's Villa Reloaded " , we come up with solid considerations: what is relevant here is the centrality of the end-user who need to be the main protagonist of any cultural public transmission and thus of any investigation programme.

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.