The MUSETECH Model

The MUSETECH Model posits that in order for museums to successfully utilize technologies, there are three stakeholder perspectives that must be considered. Throughout all stages of a museum technology project, these perspectives offer views that complement and inform the others in a way that can build institutional synergy. This model also states that there are four primary stages or constituents of a museum technology project. These quartiles contain evaluation criteria per perspective, grouped by thematic categories called clusters, which allows for a granular overview of the considerations throughout each stage of the technology project.

Perspectives

(M) Museum as an Institution

This addresses the needs of the institution as it exists interdependently with the Cultural Heritage Professionals it employs and the Visitors that utilize its resources.

(CHP) Cultural Heritage Professional

This addresses the needs of professionals who works within a Museum institution, regardless of their department or title. These professionals perform a large portion of the interactions with Visitors and often create content through utilization of the Museum’s resources.

(V) Visitor

This addresses the needs of individuals who are accessing the Museum’s resources by utilizing content created through a Cultural Heritage Professional, in both self-directed or facilitated interactions.

Quartiles

(D) Design

This stage regards the ideation of the technology project, its interaction methods, user experience, and aesthetics.

Quartile	Clusters	Cultural Heritage Professional	Museum	Visitor
Design	D1. Design and Product Ideation	D1Pa. Design Concept	D1Ma. Level of Innovation and business intelligence	D1Va. Co-design, front-end evaluation and visitor acceptance
		D1Pb. Integration with Exhibition	D1Mb. Brand name, uniqueness, originality
		D1Pc. Integration with other ICT	D1Mc. Integration with other ICT
		D1Pd. Balancing Physical with Digital	D1Md. Budget
		D1Pe. Understanding the Fabrication Process	D1Me. Staff acceptance
		D1Pf. In-house technical knowledge
	D2. Experience Design and Narratives	D2Pa. Experience added value	D2Ma. Interpretive, educational and learning potential	D2Va. Engagement
		D2Pb. Relevance to audience	D2Mb. Personalization potential	D2Vb. Personalization
		D2Pc. Tailored content	D2Mc. Public outreach and communication	D2Vc. Learning, entertainment and edutainment
		D2Pd. Attentional balance	D2Md. Big data potential	D2Vd. Attentional balance
		D2Pe. Social interaction		D2Ve. Affective impact
		D2Pf. Before and after the visit support		D2Vf. Social interaction
				D2Vg. Ability to follow usage on other platforms
				D2Vh. Sense of belonging to a community
	D3. Interactions, Affordances and Interaction Metaphors	D3Pa. Quality of Affordances	D3Ma. Follow-up usage on other platforms	D3Va. Utility, usability and ease of use
		D3Pb. Suitability of interaction metaphors	D3Mb. Brand name, uniqueness and originality	D3Vb. Intuitiveness, learnability and learning curve
		D3Pc. Interface design		D3Vc. Responsiveness
		D3Pd. Clarity of navigation		D3Vd. Clarity of navigation
		D3Pe. Follow-up usage on other platforms		D3Ve. Personalization
		D3Pf. Multisensoriality		D3Vf. Social interaction
				D3Vg. Ability to follow-up usage on other platforms
				D3Vh. Presence of Multisensoriality
	D4. Aesthetics, Look and Feel, and Visceral Qualities	D4Pa. Look and feel	D4Ma. Brand name, uniqueness and originality	D4Va. Look and feel

(C) Content

This stage regards content creation and management for the technology project.

Quartile	Cluster	Cultural Heritage Professional	Museum	Visitor
Content	C1. Content Creation	C1Pa. Utility, usability and ease of use	C1Ma. Continuity of usage	C1Va. Perceived content quality
		C1Pb. Learnability and learning curve	C1Mb. Logging	C1Vb. Visitor-created content, creation and curation
		C1Pc. Personalization and adaptation
		C1Pd. Multilingualism
		C1Pe. Community support
		C1Pf. Technology knowledge and support in the house
		C1Pg. Interoperability
	C2. Content Maintenance	C2Pa. Ability to make changes in-house	C2Ma. Staff acceptance	C2Va. Personalization
		C2Pb. Potential for documenting and archiving	C2Mb. Interoperability and modularity	C2Vb. Social interaction and sharing
				C2Vc. Continuity of usage

(O) Operation

This stage regards the logistics of running and maintaining the technology project through its lifetime and beyond.

• O1. Deployment and setting-up
• O2. Robustness and maintenance
• O3. Power and energy
• O4. Costs
• O5. Additional resources

(MP) Compliance

This stages covers ethical and legal considerations regarding health, safety, and liability as they relate to the technology project.

• MP1. Health, safety and accessibility
• MP2. Logging and monitoring
• MP3. Ethics and legal issues

Navigating the Model

(EC) Evaluation Criteria

Each Quartile has Clusters, which contain Evaluation Criteria for each perspective. There are a total of 121 Evaluation Criteria that provide a granular overview of the project for the museum as an institution, cultural heritage professionals and visitors.

Read More: MUSETECH Evaluation Criteria by Cluster

Each Evaluation Criteria is assigned a unique ID, making it easier to address specific areas of the matrix. Each Evaluation Criteria is listed by Quartile, Cluster, Perspective and Evaluation Criteria. For example, D1Pa refers to the “Design Quartile”, “Cluster 1: Design and product ideation” for the “Cultural Heritage Professional”, Evaluation Criteria “a”.