The Analysis of the Effects of Virtual Museums on Museum Experience

This thesis examines the rapidly increasing number of virtual museums and the museum experience they provide to their visitors. Virtual museums, like museums, offer a certain level of experience to their visitors. There are certain criteria for them to offer this experience. In this study, existing virtual museums have been pre evaluated and divided into two main categories as museums designed as virtual museums and museums adapted to virtual museums. The selected seven virtual museum examples were examined according to these two main categories. Each selected example was evaluated in four stages: virtual museum design, virtual environment, perception and interactivity, and the results were compared. The study was carried out through literature review, evaluation of virtual museums. This thesis consists of five chapters. The first part of the thesis gives information about the purpose of the research and how it was carried out. In the second and third chapters, a literature review was done. The definition of museums, how they developed in history and turned into virtual museums, virtual museum categories and the virtual museum experience were examined. Finally, evaluations were made on the selected virtual museums with the criteria obtained from the literature review. This thesis is aimed to assist future studies in the field of virtual museum design and experience. Keywords: Museums, Virtual Museums, Museum Experience, Digital Museum Design, Perception, Interactivity