DOI: 10.4018/IJTHI.2020070102 International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction Volume 16 • Issue 3 • July-September 2020 Copyright © 2020, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. 24 Understanding and Modeling Visitor Behaviours for Enhancing Personalized Cultural Experiences Laura Pandolfo, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy Sara Spanu, University of Milano Bicocca, Milano, Italy Luca Pulina, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy Enrico Grosso, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy ABSTRACT Nowadays, there is an increasing interest in using adaptive technologies in cultural heritage sites to personalize and enhance the user’s visit experience. However, personalizing the cultural experiences is still a challenging task that requires a deep knowledge of those user aspects that influence the visit. In order to facilitate the learning process during the visit, adaptive systems should consider differences between individuals for personalizing access to cultural heritage collections. This article calls into question the role that technologies can play both to enhance a user’s visit experience and to attract new audiences through personalized interactions with cultural objects. It addresses a specific understanding of visitors’ needs and behaviours by means of empirical data collected through a survey questionnaire. Knowing the main factors underlying visitors’ styles it allowed formalization of this knowledge into a user model ontology which collects the main visitors’ characteristics in the use of cultural heritage contexts. KEywoRdS Adaptivity, Cultural Heritage, Empirical Study, Museum, Ontology, Personalized Interaction, Sociological Survey, User Modeling INTRodUCTIoN In the last decades, the use of technologies is increasingly gaining popularity in the cultural heritage domain by playing different roles, ranging from conservation and preservation to real-time consumption of cultural exhibitions by visitors. Focusing on the access of the heritage, new technologies can provide innovative ways to consume the culture by enhancing the interaction between people and cultural objects. With the advent of the Web, several museums, libraries and archives – usually referred as memory institutions, a concept that is underpinned by the idea that materiality of memory is often associated with physical places (Stainforth, 2016) – started to digitize cultural resources and make them available and accessible on their websites. Nowadays, these online platforms often provide personalized interaction with the users, for example, by allowing them to create their own personal