GAMIFICATION in the Museum of the FUTURE

The Universalmuseum Joanneum (UMJ) preserves more than five million cultural, natural, and artistic objects across 20 museums and a zoo. Its strategic priority is to use digital innovation to strengthen public engagement and build meaningful connections with diverse audiences.

The Universalmuseum Joanneum faces the challenge of moving beyond digitization for research toward creating interactive, personalized, and emotionally engaging experiences—especially for younger, digitally fluent visitors. This shift requires transforming the museum from a static display space into a participatory cultural environment where visitors contribute, explore, and co-create narratives.

To achieve this, UMJ seeks to advance from documentation-focused tools to innovative applications of gaming, EdTech, XR, and tourism technologies. Key objectives include:

• Embedding collections in cross-media storytelling that bridges digital and physical spaces

• Enabling interactive participation to deepen motivation and learning

• Integrating game mechanics such as quests, rewards, and collaboration

• Developing hybrid formats that allow flexible on-site and online access

• Lowering barriers to entry for audiences with limited previous museum engagement

The overarching vision is to evolve UMJ into an inclusive, immersive cultural space that blends analogue, digital, and hybrid experiences. Emotional storytelling and playful exploration will encourage repeat visits while connecting the museum’s diverse sites into a coherent overall experience.

Accessibility is a core principle. All formats must be barrier-free, ensuring participation regardless of age, background, or mobility. Technology serves as a tool for empathy, interaction, and dialogue—not an end in itself. With this approach, UMJ aims to position itself as a European flagship museum, fostering creativity, empowerment, and contemporary relevance within a competitive leisure environment.

This call invites solutions that advance this vision through user-friendly, mature, cost-effective, and sustainable designs—ensuring meaningful visitor experiences and a resilient digital transformation.

• Evaluation Criteria

• User-friendliness (30%)

• Maturity of the solution (30%)

• Cost framework (20%)

• Future-proofing / sustainability (20%)