The reviewed strategies for sustaining museum experience all seem to contribute to the user’s understanding, contemplating, and memorizing the installations or artworks they witnessed. Each of them has its own channel of influence and the tools that are used to implement them. The success of the strategies seems to be comprised of multiple aspects such as user’s intention for attending the exhibition, the perceived quality or attractiveness of the presented items, and the organization choices. For instance, personalization through engagement seems to work well with those who are tired of beholding countless portraits and landscapes in art galleries. In this case, technology could both entertain and help memorize particular works due to active participation. In this case, it also serves as an attraction to share the received experience provided it was immersive enough.
The level of personalization is highly dependent on the perceived quality of the exhibited item. Even if the content is well presented and advertised, it is still doubtful that it would satisfy a visitor if he or she does not produce an emotional response. Therefore, the visitor is unlikely to share it via social media. An implication here is that proper advertising and grouping the exhibition items would, to a certain extent, make the audience more homogenous and prepared for the experiences that await them in the exhibition hall. This, in turn would create more opportunities for using engagement techniques. However, an element of shock such as newly introduced VR technology could be used to mitigate the negative perception of the content and act as a retaining agent. The use of space is also a strategy that could be used to alter the perception of a visitor tuning him or her to a certain mood and helping conserve energy (Tzortzi, 2015).
Co-creation seems to incorporate the full meaning of interactive exhibition design. This changes the concept of a museum from a place for sheer witnessing items to a participative environment. However, adapting various exhibitions for co-creation could be challenging if the idea goes beyond a sharing campaign as in Natural History Museum of Los Angeles.
Social media is the invention of a 21st century that has produced a tremendous effect on all spheres of life. When museums are concerned, engagement through social media has become practically irreplaceable for advertising. It has also become a retaining strategy that addresses information straight to the potential visitors and reminds them about the experience they received. Active usage of this instrument will allow a museum to stay competitive among other sources of learning and entertainment.
The future popularity of museums ass sources of traditional and emerging cultural knowledge depends on their ability to interact with their audience. The use of the above mentioned strategies seem to contribute to creation of long-lasting experiences that create a positive image of a museum. Use of modern technologies such as VR should become a feature that establishes a modern trend for presenting exhibitions. Above that, museums should not ignore the increasing dominance of social media as a main means of information distribution. The combined use of these strategies could help address the problem of low coverage of young audience that persists in the modern world. The compromise between the traditional presentation for the previous generation and the emerging technological approach have to be balanced in order to achieve compromise and retain as much social strata as possible.