# The VIRTUALDiver Project. Making Greece's Underwater Cultural Heritage Accessible to the Public
## 4 Conclusions  
The main issue during the design process by a multidisciplinary team was the adoption of a commonly accepted way of managing multimedia material by all members, regardless of familiarity with programming or usage of the Unity 3D environment. By incorporating the use of visual scripting in the production process, VIRTUALDiver's methodology for implementing interactive experiences acquired an interdisciplinary character, enabling collaboration from the whole team. Although Unity 3D provides appropriate interface design tools, the production process required a corresponding specialization in the creation phases, on the one hand, and a significant implementation period on the other. In the VIRTUALDiver platform, the design of UI elements, as a production process, is taking place mainly in familiar design software (e.g., Adobe Photoshop [55]), and through special plugin modules, the produced material is introduced in the platform already marked with the respective interactivity properties. Following this methodology, the design time of the interfaces is reduced and the front-end management by the appropriate team (UX, UI designers, and content editors) is easily accessible.  
Based on the adoption of the above the following design principles were followed:  
* Easy navigation in the virtual environment.
* Easy access to content.
* Ability to navigate using digital maps (2D and 3D).
* Ability to navigate using virtual routes.
* Attractive interfaces of interactive experiences.  
As a general statement, it can be said that although VR and AR account for dynamically developing fields, the necessary tools for virtual storytelling are still in an infant and experimental stage. Thus, the purpose of VIRTUALDiver is to make use of the current technological developments in VR and AR, to highlight the terrestrial and underwater wealth of Greece, and develop new types of cultural-touristic applications.  
**Supplementary Materials:** The following are available online at [[http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/22/8172/s1](http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/22/8172/s1)]([http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/22/8172/s1](http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/22/8172/s1)), Video S1: VIRTUALDiver Project.  
**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, P.N., G.I. and G.P.; methodology, G.P. and K.M.; software, G.P. and K.M.; validation, G.P. and P.N., formal analysis, E.K and K.B.; investigation, G.P. K.M., A.T. and E.K.; resources, A.T. and K.B.; data curation, G.P.; writing--original draft preparation, G.P., K.B., A.T., and E.K.; writing--review and editing, P.N.; visualization, G.I.; supervision, P.N.; project administration, V.A.; funding acquisition, P.N. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
**Funding:** This research was funded by RESEARCH-CREATE-INNOVATE of the Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation (EPANEK), NSRF 2014-2020, R.G. 15336 (Research project: VIRTUALDiver), grant number 02210.  
**Acknowledgments:** We acknowledge funding from the \"RESEARCH-CREATE-INNOVATE\" of the \"Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation (EPANEK)\", NSRF 2014-2020, R.G. 15336 (Research project: VIRTUALDiver) for the Department of Geology and Geoenvironment. We acknowledge [PERSON], [PERSON] and [PERSON] (STEFICON) and [PERSON], [PERSON] (Up2 metric) for their fruitful collaboration in the framework of the VIRTUALDiver project (www.virtualdiver.gr).  
**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.  
**Abbreviations**  
AR Augmented Reality  
VR Virtual Reality  
UCH Underwater Cultural Heritage  
POI Point of Interest  
VRTK Virtual Reality Tool Kit  
UI User Interface  
UX User Experience  
GUI Graphical User Interface  
ICT Information and Communication Technologies  
NVMe Non Volatile Memory Express  
SSD Solid State Drive