Research on the Interface Design of Museum Mini Programs Based on Flow Theory

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-737-8_53How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Flow theory; Museum mini program; Interface design; user experience

Abstract

As digital technologies increasingly permeate public cultural services, museums are adopting lightweight mobile platforms such as WeChat mini programs to expand visitor engagement. However, most existing museum mini programs suffer from functional homogeneity, fragmented user journeys, and shallow interactivity, which hinder sustained attention and deep satisfaction in short‑session digital encounters. This study introduces flow theory as a design framework to address these challenges. By systematically reviewing the core components of flow experience including its conditional, experiential, and outcome factors we construct a three layer flow model tailored to museum mini program interface design, comprising a trigger layer, a process layer, and a result layer. To validate the model, we conducted a comparative user experiment with 40 participants, divided into an experimental group using the flow‑based design and a control group using a conventional interface. Both subjective flow experience scales and objective task performance were measured. Results show that the experimental group scored significantly higher across all 10 flow indicators and achieved markedly better objective accuracy, particularly in tasks requiring spatial reasoning and detailed observation. This research offers a practical, theory‑driven framework for transforming routine digital museum services into engaging, educationally effective experiences, and points toward future integration of AI and AR technologies for deeper cultural immersion.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yuting Shi
AU  - Qiyuan Ma
AU  - Hang Yin
AU  - Shujiao Liu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/08/18
TI  - Research on the Interface Design of Museum Mini Programs Based on Flow Theory
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 5th International Conference on Art Design and Digital Technology (ADDT 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 435
EP  - 440
SN  - 2352-538X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-737-8_53
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-737-8_53
ID  - Shi2026
ER  -