Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Designing for cultural learning and reflection using IoT serious game approach

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Previous studies have highlighted the difficulty that designers face in designing interactive systems that will help visitors learn and reflect upon cultural issues in support of museums’ new roles of shaping cultural identify and community building. In this paper, we report a study to explore the potential of Internet of things (IoT) serious games to support cultural learning and reflection by incorporating five IoT-mediated interactive exhibits—an online trading game, an interactive grinder and Goldsmith simulators, a lantern design and a virtual house decoration station. We present design goals to meet the aim and evaluate our approach through a museum study. The results show significant learning gains from pre-test to post-test, and our interview analyses indicate some evidence of participants engaging in all levels of reflection. From our findings, we discuss the design goals and recommend design guidelines for future IoT serious games to support reflective learning in museums.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Anderson E, McLoughlin L, Liarokapis F, Feters, Petridis P, de Freitas S (2010) Developing serious games for cultural heritage: a state-of-the-art review. Virtual Reality 14:255–275

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Bampatzia S, Antoniou A, Lepouras G, Vasilakis C, Wallace M (2016) Using social media to stimulate history reflection in cultural heritage. In: Proceedings of 11th International Workshop on Semantic and Social Media Adaptation and Personalization, pp. 89–92

  3. Baumer EP (2015) Reflective informatics: conceptual dimensions for designing technologies of reflection. In: Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 585–594

  4. Baumer, E.P., Khovanskaya, V., Matthews, M., Reynolds, L., Schwanda Sosik, V. and Gay, G. (2014) Reviewing reflection: on the use of reflection in interactive system design. In: Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Designing interactive systems, pp. 93–102

  5. Bellotti F, Berta R, De Gloria A (2010) Designing effective serious games: opportunities and challenges for research. J Emerg Technol Learn 22–35

  6. Boud D, Keogh R, Walker D (2013) Reflection: turning experience into learning. Routledge, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  7. Chu JH, Mazalek A (2019) Embodied engagement with narrative: a design framework for presenting cultural heritage artifacts. Multimodal Technol Interact 3(1):1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Claisse C, Ciolfi L, Petrelli D (2017) Containers of Stories: using co-design and digital augmentation to empower the museum community and create novel experiences of heritage at a house museum. Des J 20(1):2906–2918

    Google Scholar 

  9. Cosley D, Lewenstein J, Herman A, Holloway J, Baxter J, Nomura S, Boehner K, Gay G (2008) ArtLinks: fostering social awareness and reflection in museums. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 403–412

  10. CrossCult. CrossCult Background. Retrieved from https://www.crosscult.eu/. last accessed 2020/01/24

  11. Fleck R, Fitzpatrick G (2010) Reflecting on reflection: framing a design landscape. In: Proceedings of the 22nd Conference of the Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group of Australia on Computer-Human Interaction, pp. 216–223

  12. Froschauer J, Arends M, Goldfarb D, Merkl D (2011) Towards an online multiplayer serious game providing a joyful experience in learning art history. In: Proceedings of 2011 Third International Conference on Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications pp. 160–163

  13. Ghajargar M, Wiberg M (2018) Thinking with interactive artefact: reflection as a concept in design outcomes. J Des Issues 34:48–63

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Giaccardi E, Palen L (2008) The social production of heritage through cross-media interaction: making place for place-making. J Herit Stud 14(3):281–297

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Hallnäs L, Redström J (2001) Slow technology–designing for reflection. Pers Ubiquit Comput 5(3):201–212

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Huang H, Lo WH, Ng KH, Brailsford T, O'Malley C (2018) Enhancing reflective learning experiences in museums through interactive installations. In: Proceedings of International Conference of the Learning Sciences, pp. 776–783

  17. Iacovides I, Cox AL (2015) Moving beyond fun: evaluating serious experience in digital games. In: Proceedings of the 33rd annual acm conference on human factors in computing systems, pp. 2245–2254

  18. Kaplan R (1993) The role of nature in the context of the workplace. J Landsc Urban Plan 26(1–4):193–201

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Kelly L (2007) Visitors and learners: adult museum visitors’ learning identities. In: ICOM-CECA, pp. 1–20

  20. Khaled, R. (2018) Questions over answers: reflective game design. In: Playful disruption of digital media, pp. 3–27

  21. Laamarti F, Eid M, El Saddik A (2014) An overview of serious games. J Comput Games Technol 1–15

  22. Li H (2017) Enabling sensing and interaction with everyday objects. In: Adjunct Publication of the 30th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 103–106

  23. Li I, Dey A, Forlizzi J (2010) A stage-based model of personal informatics systems. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, pp. 557–566

  24. Lucero A, Arrasvuori J (2010) PLEX cards: a source of inspiration when designing for playfulness. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Fun and Games, pp. 28–37

  25. Marsh T, Costello B (2013) Lingering serious experience as trigger to raise awareness, encourage reflection and change behavior. In: International Conference on Persuasive Technology, pp. 116–124

  26. Marshall MT, Petrelli D, Dulake N, Not E, Marchesoni M, Trenti E, Pisetti A (2016) Audio-based narratives for the trenches of World War I: intertwining stories, places and interaction for an evocative experience. J Human-Comput Stud 85:27–39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Mekler ED, Iacovides I, Bopp JA (2018) A game that makes you question: exploring the role of reflection for the player experience. In: Proceedings of the 2018 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, pp. 315–327

  28. Mora S, Gianni F, Divitini M (2017) Tiles: a card-based ideation toolkit for the internet-of-things. In: Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Designing Interactive Systems - DIS '17, pp. 587–598

  29. Mortara M, Catalano CE, Bellotti F, Fiucci G, Houry-Panchetti M, Petridis P (2014) Learning cultural heritage by serious games. J Cult Herit 15(3):318–325

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Muntean, R., Antle, A.N., Matkin, B., Hennessy, K., Rowley, S. and Wilson, J. (2017) Designing cultural values into interaction. In: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 6062–6074

  31. Ng KH, Huang H, O’Malley C (2018) Treasure codes: augmenting learning from physical museum exhibits through treasure hunting. Pers Ubiquit Comput 22(4):739–750

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Not E, Cavada D, Maule S, Pisetti A, Venturini A (2019) Digital augmentation of historical objects through tangible interaction. J Comput Cult Herit 12(3):1–19

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Pierdicca R, Marques-Pita M, Paolanti M, Malinverni ES (2019) IoT and engagement in the ubiquitous museum. Sensors 19(6):1387

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Quintana C, Reiser BJ, Davis EA, Krajcik J, Fretz E, Duncan RG, Kyza E, Edelson D, Soloway E (2004) A scaffolding design framework for software to support science inquiry. J Learn Sci 13(3):337–338

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Sagae A, Johnson WL, Row R (2010) Serious game environments for language and culture education. In: Proceedings of the NAACL HLT 2010 Demonstration Session, pp. 29–32

  36. Skydsgaard MA, Møller Andersen H, King H (2016) Designing museum exhibits that facilitate visitor reflection and discussion. Mus Manag Curatorship 31(1):48–68

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Van Leeuwen T (2013) The representation of social actors. In: Texts and practices, pp. 41–79

  38. Weil SE (1999) From being about something to being for somebody: the ongoing transformation of the American museum. Daedalus 128(3):229–258

    Google Scholar 

  39. West BA (2010) Encyclopedia of the peoples of Asia and Oceania. Infobase Publishing

Download references

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Baba Nyonya Heritage Museum, particularly Miss Melissa Chan for their collaboration in this research project. In addition, we thank Professor Timothy Brailsford from The University of the West of England, UK, Professor Claire O’Malley from Durham University, Professor Steve Benford from the University of Nottingham, UK, and Wei Hong Lo from the University of Otago, New Zealand for their help and support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, 43500, Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia

    Hai Huang & Kher Hui Ng

Authors
  1. Hai Huang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kher Hui Ng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kher Hui Ng.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Huang, H., Ng, K.H. Designing for cultural learning and reflection using IoT serious game approach. Pers Ubiquit Comput 25, 509–524 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-020-01482-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-020-01482-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation