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Digital information systems are increasingly being used in public spaces such as museums. Such systems should be easily accessible, arouse interest and offer useful information, and be easy to use. We present FLIPPIN' user interface (UI) system, which mimics the look, feel, and usability of traditional books. We explored how the paper-based book UI is designed to improve the usability problems in a public space while creating the prototypes with the aim of introducing Japanese cultural assets and conducting a field evaluation to compare the proposed system to a touch panel UI. The results of evaluation indicated the positive effects of the system, especially in terms of the usability and user's active appreciation derived from a physical book interaction. In addition, we present design guidelines derived from our findings. The suggested design guidelines are expected to facilitate the future development of effective interactive digital information systems in public spaces.

The purpose of this study was to make the appreciation in the museum that visitors understood precious cultural artifacts more deeply. We designed an embodied appreciation system called MeLight that allows various visitors including children to actively appreciate exhibits they are interested in. MeLight was installed in the Tokyo National Museum. We observed users during use of MeLight, and it seemed that they often traced the contour of coastlines with the flashlight device. As a result, it was effective to design, implement and introduce a system in which visitors used physical interaction to trigger active appreciation of and interest in the museum's cultural assets.