Designing Reenacted Chatbots to Enhance Museum Experience

Abstract

The increased availability of chatbots has drawn attention and interest to the study of what answers they provide and how they provide them. Chatbots have become a common sight in museums but are limited to answering only simple and basic questions. Based on the observed potential of chatbots for history education in museums, we investigate how chatbots impact history education and improve the overall experience according to their appearance and language style. For this, we built three models, designed by factors on embodiment and reflection, and 60 sets of answer–questions, designed for the National Museum of Korea. We conducted a study with a total of 34 participants and carried out a variety of analyses covering individual learning styles, museum experience scales, gaze data, in-depth interviews and observations from researchers. We present various results and lessons regarding the effect of embodiment and reflection on the museum experience. Our findings show how people with different learning styles connect with chatbot models and how visitors’ behavior in the museum changes depending on the chatbot model. Specifically, the chatbot model equipped with embodiment and reflection shows its superiority in enhancing the museum experience, in general.