Designing for Enjoyment and Informal Learning: A Study in A Museum Context

This study reports a qualitative exploratory study from the end users’ perspective of the design of websites that encourage enjoyable web experiences and informal online learning. As the mission of museums is to provide the general public with educational materials for study and enjoyment, museum websites offer an excellent opportunity to study learning environments designed for enjoyable web experiences. The concept of enjoyable online learning experiences – specifically when learning is not part of a formal instructional undertaking – has not been well studied and thus is not well understood. This study seeks to redress this gap in the literature by reporting on hundreds of end users’ opinions and perspectives. The study identifies a set of characteristics for encouraging online learning experiences for the general public and suggests a number of conceptual guidelines for developing an online learning website for enjoyment based on the online end user’s view.