As cultural heritage digitisation accelerates, virtual museums have emerged as powerful platforms for enriching public engagement with culture. Yet, the underlying psychological mechanisms that drive user enjoyment in these environments remain underexplored. Drawing on the Hedonic Motivation System Adoption Model (HMSAM) and Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this study develops an integrated theoretical framework to explain how system usability shapes user enjoyment through five core psychological constructs: perceived usefulness, curiosity, joy, control, and immersion. It also investigates the moderating role of basic psychological needs. Based on a partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis of survey data from 630 users of the Virtual Palace Museum, the results show that system usability significantly enhances these psychological responses. Among them, immersion exerts the strongest effect on user enjoyment, while control does not demonstrate a significant impact. Moreover, basic psychological needs significantly moderate the link between perceived usefulness and enjoyment. These findings advance a user-centred understanding of virtual cultural experiences and offer actionable insights for the design and optimisation of digital heritage platforms.
Hao et al. (Sun,) studied this question.