# Design and Evaluation of a Web- and Mobile-Based Binaural Audio Platform for Cultural Heritage
## 5 Evaluation
### Discussion  
The evaluation aimed at understanding if PlugSonic (1) is easy to learn and use for people unfamiliar with 3D audio in general and the concept of soundscape in particular, (2) is an effective tool for the creation of 3D soundscape from and for real environments and (3) has the potential to improve engagement and understanding of cultural heritage. Overall, creating a soundscape was rated with a 6.4 (out of 7) for ease. Participants felt confident using PlugSonic Soundscape and found the interactive aspect of creating the soundscape most interesting and engaging. Some difficulties were observed, indicating that improvements could be made for adding and setting up new sound sources and tagging exhibitions. More in general, further improvements are possible to make the apps more streamlined and speed up the creation process. At the time of writing, the authors already updated PlugSonic Soundscape Create based on the feedback obtained during the evaluation. For example, the reach radius slider visibility has been improved; a visual feedback has been added when listener is in reach of a source (reach area changes colour); precision for all sliders has been set to one decimal point; the separation between sources' panels has been made clearer; and a \"Loading.\" message has been added when retrieving a sound source. With a net promoter score of 20, participants are likely to recommend PlugSonic Soundscape to others. Although, one of the most critical aspects highlighted during evaluation was the resistance of users to become content creators. It seems clear that efforts are still necessary from research communities and institutions to empower citizens \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l} \hline \hline  & **a** & \\ \hline  & **Questions** & **Likert Score** \\  & **Personal Resonance and Emotional Connection** & **Avg (Std)** \\ \hline
1 & The soundscape made experiencing the objects & \\  & more interesting/fun. & 5.4 (1.5) \\
2 & I found the soundscape emotionally engaging. & 5.6 (1.0) \\
3 & During the experience, I felt connected with the & \\  & objects presented to me & 4.1 (2.0) \\
4 & I will be thinking about this experience & \\  & for some time to come. & 5.7 (1.3) \\ \hline  & **b** & \\ \hline  & **Learning and Intellectual Stimulation** & \\ \hline
5 & I got a good understanding about the & \\  & objects presented to me. & 3.1 (1.5) \\
6 & I got a good understanding about where & \\  & the objects where located. & 4.9 (2.4) \\
7 & I felt engaged with the objects presented to me. & 5.0 (1.5) \\
8 & I felt challenged and provoked. & 4.0 (2.1) \\
9 & During this experience, my eyes were opened & \\  & to new ideas. & 4.9 (2.0) \\ \hline  & **c** & \\ \hline  & **Shared Experience and Social Connectedness** & \\ \hline
10 & I would have liked to have shared about & \\  & it with other people & 5.7 (1.1) \\
11 & After this experience, I wanted to talk & \\  & to people about it. & 5.9 (0.9) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Evaluation part 3.  
and provide them with more active participation in the act of sharing and protecting cultural heritage. Additionally, for the experience part of PlugSonic Soundscape, positive results were obtained in terms of personal resonance as well as shared experience and social connectedness. Future improvements should be made to support emotional connection and intellectual stimulation better. Although, it needs to be taken into account that the evaluation did not take place in an actual museum with real artefacts being exhibited. The main limitation in the evaluation of PlugSonic was in the number of participants. Only a total of 12 participants were involved, 5 for part 1 and 2 and 7 for part 3. Adding the baseline completion time in Table 1 helped to partially compensate for it. Although the apps would benefit from an extended testing and evaluation, similar tools [49] have been evaluated with similar number of participants (10).