Playfulness in museums: developing an interdisciplinary conceptual model

With more digital technology embedded in museums, playfulness is increasingly recognised as an important concept to understand visitor engagement with interactive exhibits. Yet, it remains conceptually underdeveloped within museum studies. This paper first distinguishes playfulness as a distinct concept from related literature on playful learning and play and then develops an interdisciplinary conceptual model by synthesising perspectives from multiple disciplines. The resulting triadic model conceptualises playfulness as a personality trait, a state of mind during engagement, and a design affordance of exhibits. The model is subsequently applied to museum studies to examine how these dimensions have been represented in existing research. The analysis shows that while playfulness is increasingly acknowledged, it is typically treated as an implicit or fragmented concept. The conceptual model establishes a foundation for future museum studies and offers a new perspective for understanding and designing playfulness in museum contexts.