Designing the Space Archivists: A Metadata-Driven VR Game Concept for Children to Engage with Cultural Heritage
Motivated to create a children’s VR game for the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (NISV), this research asks <i>how might we design an immersive game for children to</i> meaningfully interact with media and metadata in cultural heritage contexts? First, during a ‘design salon,’...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Heritage |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/8/7/238 |
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| author | Alina Goldman Rasa Bocyte Elana B. Blinder Arno Verhofstadt Elizabeth Bonsignore Pablo Cesar |
| author_facet | Alina Goldman Rasa Bocyte Elana B. Blinder Arno Verhofstadt Elizabeth Bonsignore Pablo Cesar |
| author_sort | Alina Goldman |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Motivated to create a children’s VR game for the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (NISV), this research asks <i>how might we design an immersive game for children to</i> meaningfully interact with media and metadata in cultural heritage contexts? First, during a ‘design salon,’ 13 data and heritage experts challenged children’s ability to interact with metadata. In response, we ran workshops with 19 children focused on understanding abstract media and data. We found that while (1) metadata has many challenges, (2) children understand abstract data when it is grounded in concrete experiences, are (3) motivated to interact with archival media through in immersive and collaborative contexts, and (4) are interested in exploring media diversity through categorisation games with high-level narrative goals. These findings inform our game concept and three core insights for designing immersive experiences for cultural heritage: <i>Considering the Contextual Complexity of Data and Audience Needs</i>, <i>Connecting Data Abstractions to Embodied Narratives Through Categorisation Mechanics</i>, and <i>Supporting Abstract Meaning Making Using the Immersive Affordances of VR</i>. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-1ccdde1c4bcc4990b229e08c2028d9d5 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2571-9408 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Heritage |
| spelling | doaj-art-1ccdde1c4bcc4990b229e08c2028d9d52025-08-20T03:08:01ZengMDPI AGHeritage2571-94082025-06-018723810.3390/heritage8070238Designing the Space Archivists: A Metadata-Driven VR Game Concept for Children to Engage with Cultural HeritageAlina Goldman0Rasa Bocyte1Elana B. Blinder2Arno Verhofstadt3Elizabeth Bonsignore4Pablo Cesar5The Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision, 1217 WE Hilversum, The NetherlandsThe Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision, 1217 WE Hilversum, The NetherlandsSchool of Information, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USAImec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 1050 Ixelles, BelgiumSchool of Information, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USADistributed & Interactive Systems (DIS) Group, Centrum Wiskune & Informatica (CWI), 1089 XG Amsterdam, The NetherlandsMotivated to create a children’s VR game for the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (NISV), this research asks <i>how might we design an immersive game for children to</i> meaningfully interact with media and metadata in cultural heritage contexts? First, during a ‘design salon,’ 13 data and heritage experts challenged children’s ability to interact with metadata. In response, we ran workshops with 19 children focused on understanding abstract media and data. We found that while (1) metadata has many challenges, (2) children understand abstract data when it is grounded in concrete experiences, are (3) motivated to interact with archival media through in immersive and collaborative contexts, and (4) are interested in exploring media diversity through categorisation games with high-level narrative goals. These findings inform our game concept and three core insights for designing immersive experiences for cultural heritage: <i>Considering the Contextual Complexity of Data and Audience Needs</i>, <i>Connecting Data Abstractions to Embodied Narratives Through Categorisation Mechanics</i>, and <i>Supporting Abstract Meaning Making Using the Immersive Affordances of VR</i>.https://www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/8/7/238cultural heritagesocial VRchildrenparticipatory design |
| spellingShingle | Alina Goldman Rasa Bocyte Elana B. Blinder Arno Verhofstadt Elizabeth Bonsignore Pablo Cesar Designing the Space Archivists: A Metadata-Driven VR Game Concept for Children to Engage with Cultural Heritage Heritage cultural heritage social VR children participatory design |
| title | Designing the Space Archivists: A Metadata-Driven VR Game Concept for Children to Engage with Cultural Heritage |
| title_full | Designing the Space Archivists: A Metadata-Driven VR Game Concept for Children to Engage with Cultural Heritage |
| title_fullStr | Designing the Space Archivists: A Metadata-Driven VR Game Concept for Children to Engage with Cultural Heritage |
| title_full_unstemmed | Designing the Space Archivists: A Metadata-Driven VR Game Concept for Children to Engage with Cultural Heritage |
| title_short | Designing the Space Archivists: A Metadata-Driven VR Game Concept for Children to Engage with Cultural Heritage |
| title_sort | designing the space archivists a metadata driven vr game concept for children to engage with cultural heritage |
| topic | cultural heritage social VR children participatory design |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/8/7/238 |
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