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Cited by 17Museums and Cultural HeritageAugmented Reality ApplicationsVirtual Reality Applications and Impacts

The Sacra Infermeria —a focus group evaluation of an augmented reality cultural heritage experience

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Barbara, Jonathan, Bellini, Mattia, Koenitz, Hartmut, Makai, Péter Kristóf, Sampatakou, Despoina, Irshad, Shafaq·2022·New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia
DOI 10.1080/13614568.2022.2150324
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Abstract

The digital representation of our past has long been an important tool in the interpretation of cultural heritage in museums. The recent rise in the use of Augmented Reality (AR) has seen various approaches to adding dynamic information to existent artefacts. The challenge is even greater when uncertainty further complexifies the represented history. This paper presents a critical analysis of an AR installation in the Sacra Infermeria museum in Valletta, Malta. After a description of the AR configuration of the installation, we present a thematic analysis carried out from a multidisciplinary focus group of 11 researchers in the field of Interactive Digital Narratives (IDN), from three perspectives: the technological implementation of the AR experience, the historical accuracy, gamification and the influence of social media-centred design, and the representation of the complexity arising from the uncertainty of history. In the light of the results of the multidisciplinary focus group, we provide a list of recommendations and heuristics.

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Crossref · 10.1080/13614568.2022.2150324

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  • Lack of coherence in exhibitions can lead to confusion, fatigue, and cognitive overload, especially when interpreting cultural heritage.

    “Another issue mentioned in [13] is the lack of coherence in exhibitions, which can lead to confusion and cause visitors to heritage sites to experience fatigue and cognitive overload, especially when the topic involves interpreting elements of cultural heritage.”

    From Motiv-ARCHE: co-creation of augmented reality educational content to motivate cultural and natural heritage learning (2025) · cites this paper as [13]

  • Although several studies mention that immersive technologies enhance motivation for learning about cultural and natural heritage, very few works consider co-creation and information adaptation to improve user motivation.

    “Although several studies [13,35,42] mention that the use of immersive technologies enhances the level of motivation for learning about cultural and natural heritage, features such as co-creation and information adaptation are aspects that very few works consider improving user motivation [15,[43][44][45].”

    From Motiv-ARCHE: co-creation of augmented reality educational content to motivate cultural and natural heritage learning (2025) · cites this paper as [13]

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Authors
Barbara, J., Bellini, M., Koenitz, H., Makai, P. K., Sampatakou, D., & Irshad, S.
Affiliations
  • Saint Martin’s Institute of Higher Education
  • University of Tartu (EE)
  • Södertörn University (SE)
  • Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz (PL)
  • University of York (GB)
  • Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NO)
Corresponding author
Barbara, Jonathan
ORCID
Venue
New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Published
2022-10-02
Volume
28
Issue
3-4
Pages
143-171
ISSN
  • 0955-8543 (ISSN-L)
  • 1361-4568
  • 1740-7842
DOI
10.1080/13614568.2022.2150324
OpenAlex
W4319836325
Cited by
17
References
4
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 2
FWCI
20.82
Type
journal article
Language
en
Update notices
correction (2023-03-27)
Open access
Licence
cc-by-nc-nd
Locations
  • New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia (publishedVersion)
  • NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Museology › Museums and Cultural Heritage
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Augmented Reality Applications
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
Keywords
augmented reality, heritage interpretation, interactive digital narratives, museum installation, historical uncertainty, historical truth, gamification, design heuristics, focus group evaluation

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