Physical-first Digital Museums: Audiences’ Desires for Physical Spaces, Bodies, and Senses in Digital Experiences

The design of digital museums today prioritizes digital technologies to ensure audiences’ access, motivations, and engagement. However, “digital-first” approaches overlook the importance of physical spaces, bodies, and senses in audience engagement. In response, this paper proposes a “physical-first digital museum” approach that foregrounds physical spaces, bodies, and senses. This provides a more humanistic standpoint from museums’ and audiences’ perspectives from the Global South. Consequently, this paper updates scholarship on digital museums that focuses on trials of new digital technologies in museum experiences, museum audience studies focusing on the affordances of digital technologies for audience – all of which are predominately related to western countries. This study draws on interviews and consultations with museum professionals, online audience analytics, and an audience survey with Vietnamese and international expat museum audiences, including young, family, and international museumgoers, between 2020 and 2021. Findings show audiences desire digital experiences to activate the physical space and their bodies and senses. Audiences feel this can build emotional attachment and retain the value of physical cultural artefacts. Overall, this paper contributes new knowledge by sharing physical-first and audience-focused desires for digital museum practices that position physical space, bodies, and senses as central in digital museums.