PERSONALIZATION ENVISAGED IN MUSEUM APPLICATION GUIDES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS: UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXTUALIZATION OF THE VIRTUAL MUSEUM WITHIN THE MUSEUMS OF KOREA

Abstract. The emergence of innovative technologies in the museum environment has influenced the development of guide application tools for personalization, greatly contributing to the enhancement of collection accessibility and enriching the museum experience. Most Korean museums have thus developed strategic objectives for the application of evolved technological advances in their guide applications over the past decade. Beyond such endeavors, the critical analysis and understanding of technical aspects, the information and interactive approach of the applications, and their personalization strategies, are still not broadly explored. This study aims to investigate the various types of technologies that museums use to envisage the personalization of museums exhibits in light of a range of classifications and their correlations. In addition to providing an overview of personalization, the paper aims to access the level and degree of user experience and engagement found in different forms of digital storytelling to investigate the realization of virtual museum(VM) within the museum sector of Korea. To this end, this paper contributes toward filling the gap in the literature by addressing how museum communities can do critical thinking on the reflection of resources when creating their application guides in developing the appropriate digital strategies.