This paper explores the intersection of user experience and museums through interactive and immersive exhibits. It discusses the background and history of the art museum and the field of UX and describes how interactivity and immersion impact visitors and change the exhibit development process. The implications of interactive and immersive exhibits on the museum space are detailed including: social media, the authenticity of objects, and the commodification of experience. It is argued that despite the drawbacks of interactivity and immersion in the museum, the potential benefits of audience engagement and social connection make them worth pursuing.

Online learning has been more prevalent since the rapid increase of the technology field, this paper examines if the interactivity of an online learning website can affect learning, usability, and time spent interacting. Participants were collected from Amazon Mechanical Turk, and they were compensated $1.00 for their time. 39 participants received one of three online learning conditions on the ideal gas law with varying levels of interactivity (video, simulation, quiz). The participants took a pretest, interacted with their condition for a set time, then completed a posttest and a usability survey. An ANOVA was conducted on time, usability, and posttest transfer scores. A repeated measures ANOVA was conducted on pretest and posttest recall scores. There was no significance found for learning, usability, or time spent interacting with the online learning platform. Further studies should consider exposing participants to learning materials for longer periods of time.

In this thesis, I explored the interconnected ways in which human experience can shape and be shaped by environments of the future, such as interactive environments and spaces, embedded with sensors, enlivened by advanced algorithms for sensor data processing. I have developed an abstract representational experience into the vast and continual journey through life that shapes how we can use sensory immersion. The experimental work was housed in the iStage: an advanced black box space in the School of Arts, Media, and Engineering, which consists of video cameras, motion capture systems, spatial audio systems, and controllable lighting and projector systems. The malleable and interactive space of the iStage transformed into a reflective tool in which to gain insight into the overall shared, but very individual, emotional odyssey. Additionally, I surveyed participants after engaging in the experience to better understand their perceptions and interpretations of the experience. With the responses of participants' experiences and collective reflection upon the project I can begin to think about future iterations and how they might contain applications in health and/or wellness.