Background

Since 2017 (according to statistics from INEGI), there has been a decrease in visits to museums in Mexico; the main standard answer to why people have stopped visiting museums is due to a lack of education or culture,  dissemination of information, and interest or motivation.

Therefore, museums constantly search for ways to engage with their public and have found technology and educational games important allies to contribute to this purpose.

This project is part of a master project from the Master in Information and Communication Technology Management from the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC). It aims to design, develop, and evaluate a serious game for the Caracol Museo de Ciencias, a science-oriented museum in Ensenada, Baja California, to promote engagement with the public in their new exhibition hall dedicated to the Sea. 

The serious game consists of completing short, interactive challenges related to the exhibition's content. Through an authoring tool, the museum staff can constantly update some aspects of the game to provide a different game experience on every new visit. 

This project has been presented at the following conferences: 8vo. Coloquio de posgrados Zona 1 de ANFECA, Encuentro Estatal de Jóvenes Investigadores en Baja California 2021 and the Eight Mexican Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (MexIHC 2021), both as a short paper and a graduate consortium paper. The results from a formative evaluation of Aventura Marina were published in an indexed journal.