Enhancing the Museum Experience: A Gamified Approach of an Interactive Installation in the Industrial Museum of Hermoupolis

This paper explores the role of interactive installations in contributing to the reuse of archived knowledge and motivating visitors’ appreciation and value for cultural heritage. It also examines how gamification techniques can be employed to afford playful experiences in an educational approach within museum settings, integrating information and enabling visitors to explore industrial cultural heritage in a more engaging way. The paper presents a case study focused on the creation of an interactive installation at the Industrial Museum of Hermoupolis in Syros, Greece, utilising a non-interactive exhibit, specifically the water pump machine. The introduction provides an overview of the importance of Hermoupolis’ cultural heritage, presents the Industrial Museum of Hermoupolis, and outlines the objectives of the project. Then it discusses the design phases that have been followed towards the implementation of the interactive installation. These phases include the Research and Inquiry, the Conceptual Design, and the Prototyping. Specific emphasis is given to formulating the visitor’s experience of the installation by combining the historical content, the interactive elements, the physical objects and the gamified elements. In the following sections, the paper presents the design processes towards the implementation of a working prototype and the evaluation phase. The paper concludes with a summary of the implications of the project, emphasising the importance of integrating user experience and interaction design with cultural content in designing interactive installations.