Tupikovskaja-Omovie, Z., 2025.

Digital Art Gallery in Metaverse: Eye Tracking Digital Visitors' Visual Attention, Engagement and User Journey when Interacting with Digital Artworks on Smartphones

With the exponential adoption of smartphones among young people, the rapid adoption of digital environments, namely Metaverse, for cultural engagement is increasing in creative industries. There is a limited understanding of how digital artwork, exhibited in digital art galleries, influences visitors' visual attention and engagement with artworks in Metaverse's Art Gallery. This study used a multi-method approach, triangulation of eye tracking experiments on smartphones, mapping AOIs, and developing user journeys based on visual attention patterns. The user journey map framework helped to evaluate behavior patterns in the Metaverse Digital Art Gallery with implications for industry and academia. This is one of the few studies that utilized the user journey approach and mapped gaze data to understand the behavior of digital visitors within the Metaverse Art Gallery. The findings provide useful guidance for further application in art gallery design and research and inform better ways to engage a wider audience of digital visitors in valuable cultural experiences.