From Headsets to Mindsets: A Taxonomy for Human-centred Extended Reality Experimentations for Cultural Heritage

Cultural heritage is undergoing a technological transformation that has an impact on how people experience, act, and relate to cultural heritage found in galleries, libraries, archives, and museums. There is a surge in the use of extended reality applications and tools that influence the way people experience virtual artefacts, crafts, traditions, and histori-cal stories. Extended reality is used as an umbrella term incorporating immersive experiences that utilise varying degrees of digital visualisa-tion, encompassing virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reali-ty. Despite the hype around such technologies and the increasingly af-fordable and enhanced visual experiences they afford, there is still ambiguity in terms of the processes, strategies, and human-centred design elements that drive innovation in using extended reality for cul-tural heritage applications. This chapter proposes a taxonomy that acts as a catalyst for designing features, elements, and mechanics reflex-ively and purposefully for constituting the sense and significance of interaction, participation, and meaning-making. The taxonomy could be significant in helping technologists, cultural heritage specialists, and educators harness a culture of change when designing and con-veying cultural heritage experimentations through extended reality.