Digital communication of museums in Porto and Northern Portugal

Resumo

Recent years have seen an increase in the number of assistive technologies that museums use to engage visitors. Information and Communication Technologies (ITC) offer new opportunities in the museum environment, whether indoors or outdoors, adopting interactive cultural experiences, with the aim of being accessible to all visitors. In this sense, the main aim of this research was to identify and analyze the digital tools and communication techniques used by museums, both on the web and on site, which promote Digital Communication. In the first phase, to analyze the museums' websites, a matrix of variables was created to define Digital Communication, based on the digital tools and communication techniques identified in the literature review. The analysis resulted in a matrix that defines Digital Communication in three dimensions: Visibility, Usability and Interactivity. For each of these dimensions, variables were identified that could be observed and tested, so that they could be considered active on museum websites. In a second phase, an online questionnaire was applied to all the museums in the sample in order to gather additional information. The results obtained from the analysis of the websites are lower than expected, as none of the websites identified all the variables mentioned. Analysis of the questionnaires shows that there is a greater concern for the diversity of visitors, due to the combination of multi-format communication techniques with digital tools.