Getting Engaged and Getting Tired: What Is in a Museum Experience

The physical experience of visiting a museum includes emotion and intellect. The way a person feels during an experience becomes an integral part of that memory. Evoking the feeling or mood at a later time may trigger details of a memory associated with it. Thus in a museum environment it is essential that personal discovering is appropriately supported providing visitors with the suitable amount of information they need, at the right time and place, and in the form that makes it the most acceptable and enjoyable. The quality of the received presentation is liable to subjective judgement. Personal taste typically overcomes objective effectiveness and can prejudice the pleasure of the visit. When designing new personal electronic guide to support museum visit, designers have to bear in mind all the known effects and be aware of others unexpected side effects. Moreover the system should monitor visitor's reactions in order to infer the effectiveness of the choices done and, if necessary, to rearrange the presentation style. This paper presents the work that is going to be done in the HIPS project to cope with the feedback-rearrangement process when emotion and involvement are directed to museum visitors