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U!Scientist: Designing for People-Powered Research in Museums

Authors:

Mmachi God'sglory Obiorah,

James K. L. Hammerman,

Haley Margaret West,

Laura TrouilleAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Article No.: 675, Pages 1 - 14

https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445334

Published: 07 May 2021 Publication History

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Abstract

Scientists have long sought to engage public audiences in research through citizen science projects such as biological surveys or distributed data collection. Recent online platforms have expanded the scope of what people-powered research can mean. Science museums are unique cultural institutions that translate scientific discovery for public audiences, while conducting research of their own. This makes museums compelling sites for engaging audiences directly in scientific research, but there are associated challenges as well. This project engages public audiences in contributing to real research as part of their visit to a museum. We present the design and evaluation of U!Scientist, an interactive multi-person tabletop exhibit based on the online Zooniverse project, Galaxy Zoo. We installed U!Scientist in a planetarium and collected video, computer logs, naturalistic observations, and surveys with visitors. Our findings demonstrate the potential of exhibits to engage new audiences in collaborative scientific discussions as part of people-powered research.

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Cited By

Xu NLi YLiang JShuai KLi YYan JZhang CDong Y(2024)HeritageSite AR: Design and Evaluation of a Mobile Augmented Reality Exploration Game for a Chinese Heritage SiteJournal on Computing and Cultural Heritage 10.1145/370088117:4(1-29)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3700881
Van Den Bosch CPeeters NUrkens JIpers GWolff AClaes S(2024)Situating data stories in space to entice new audiences to engage with scienceBehaviour & Information Technology10.1080/0144929X.2024.240836143:14(3325-3339)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2024.2408361
Veeckman CClaes SVan Audenhove Lvan der Graaf S(2023)A framework for making citizen science inclusive with storytelling methodsFrontiers in Environmental Science10.3389/fenvs.2023.121121311Online publication date: 16-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1211213

Index Terms

U!Scientist: Designing for People-Powered Research in Museums
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

Index terms have been assigned to the content through auto-classification.

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

May 2021

10862 pages

ISBN:9781450380966

DOI:10.1145/3411764

General Chairs:
Yoshifumi Kitamura
Tohoku University, Japan
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University of New South Wales, Australia
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University of California Santa Cruz, USA
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Takeo Igarashi
The University of Tokyo, Japan
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Pernille Bjørn
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
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Steven Drucker
Microsoft Research, USA

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Published: 07 May 2021

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Cited By

Xu NLi YLiang JShuai KLi YYan JZhang CDong Y(2024)HeritageSite AR: Design and Evaluation of a Mobile Augmented Reality Exploration Game for a Chinese Heritage SiteJournal on Computing and Cultural Heritage 10.1145/370088117:4(1-29)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3700881
Van Den Bosch CPeeters NUrkens JIpers GWolff AClaes S(2024)Situating data stories in space to entice new audiences to engage with scienceBehaviour & Information Technology10.1080/0144929X.2024.240836143:14(3325-3339)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2024.2408361
Veeckman CClaes SVan Audenhove Lvan der Graaf S(2023)A framework for making citizen science inclusive with storytelling methodsFrontiers in Environmental Science10.3389/fenvs.2023.121121311Online publication date: 16-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1211213

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