The Impact of Digital Artifact Displays in Museums on Visitors’ Visual Attention and Immersive Experience: An Empirical Analysis Based on Eye-Tracking Experiments and Questionnaires

With the widespread application of digital technology in museums, display methods increasingly shape visitors’ experiences. Using three ceramic artefacts from the Palace Museum’s digital platform, this study employed a 3 (display method: image, video, interactive) × 3 (stimulus complexity: low, medium, high) within-subjects design, combining eye-tracking and questionnaires to examine visual attention, immersive experience, and satisfaction. Display method significantly affected multiple eye-tracking metrics and subjective evaluations. Interactive displays produced higher immersion and satisfaction, whereas images and videos sustained greater visual attention to artefacts. Stimulus complexity primarily influenced visual attention but not immersion or satisfaction. Significant interactions between display method and complexity were observed for total fixation duration, first fixation duration, and average pupil diameter, indicating that content characteristics modulate attentional responses to different displays. These findings highlight the importance of matching display methods to content complexity and provide practical implications for optimising digital cultural heritage displays and museum user experiences.