Virtual, Remote Participation in Museum Visits by Older Adults: A Feasibility Study

The goal of this paper is to understand if older adults can participate in remote museum visits with virtual environments, and which design factors would be crucial for remote participation system success. We report on a study with 30 older adult participants, identifying strong and weak points of different designs for remote participation and identifying future design directions. Our results illustrate that different designs can change communication dynamics, exploration and navigation patterns, and we describe the design features that led to this. An interaction-free design was found to be the easiest to use, while virtual environments are perceived as aesthetically appealing. Implications for developers are discussed.