Narrating the Museum: Enhancing Cultural Heritage Through User Profiling and Individualized Content

Museums contribute to creating collective memory and identity, provided that their communication strategies reach all social groups. Good stories bring the most disparate and complex content closer to the “feeling” of nonspecialists, staying in people’s emotional and cognitive memory. This project aims to promote mental well-being, social inclusion, and active citizenship by stimulating partic ipants’ 4 C’s (Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Creativity) and digital skills through individualized paths that prompt effective dialogue between users and museums. The study is developed at the National Roman Museum through three research questions. What digital narrative forms promote the social inclusion of various museum audiences? How do you design educational paths that promote social inclusion and active citizenship by stimulating the 4 C’s and digital skills? How do narratives in museums facilitate the participation of different categories of users, especially those at risk of marginalization? The study is based on empirical research and co-participatory design. Facilitated tours and workshops are conducted through inclusive methodologies — i.e., Object-based Learning, Visual Thinking Strategy, and Digital Storytelling. Evaluation measures the levels of the 4 C’s and digital skills, mental well-being, and perceived social inclusion through skills assessment grids, the UCL Museum Wellbeing Measures Toolkit, and focus groups. User profiling, carried out through eye-tracking applied to Digital Storytelling products and a brief questionnaire, identifies the characteristics of groups of users to offer individualized pathways. The expected outcomes are a valuable resource for the inclusiveness of museums, the community’s participation, and all educators who wish to innovate their educational practices.