Since projects rarely end where they start, I post the following to mark (create a record of?) the beginnings of “Archival Interfaces in Virtual Reality.”

An abridged version of the project proposal:

The project will explore potential applications for virtual reality (VR) in the design of archival interfaces, drawing from scholarly literature in the areas of archival access, archives and affect, user experience design and museum studies.

Numerous scholars have commented on barriers to access inherent within the physical spaces of archival institutions. VR may offer a new modality through which to engage non-traditional audiences, and enable interfaces that intuitively communicate archival principles through their design. To date, there have been no published studies on the use of VR in the archival profession.

The objectives for the study are to 1) identify a body of literature to support future studies in the development of archival interfaces in VR; 2) create a working VR prototype interface for a small collection of archival materials; 3) recommend directions for further research.

The project will take the form of an exploratory research design: first, I will conduct a literature search to provide an interdisciplinary theoretical grounding for the study. Using insights from the literature search, I will develop an experimental VR prototype and evaluate it through user-testing with both experienced and inexperienced archival audiences. The project will culminate in a final report detailing the development process, analyzing study findings and sharing lessons learned.