Authoring hybrid experiences in cultural heritage: towards a prototyping ecosystem

This thesis investigates the design and authoring of Hybrid Exhibition Design (HED) experiences for Cultural Heritage, where physical artefacts, immersive environments, multisensory interfaces, andWeb3D/XR technologies are orchestrated into unified visitor experiences. Starting from a state-of-the-art analysis of authoring tools, the work documents a systematic usability–flexibility trade-off: existing platforms are either too rigid for designers or too low-level for non-developers. Three design explorations conducted at CNR-ISPC — the Aldrovandi Digital Twin, the BrancacciPOV collaborative XR experience, and the PERCEIVE Isis’ Colours exhibition with the CoDesign Tool — are analysed to extract six recurring challenge clusters spanning 3D asset management, narrative authoring, physical-digital integration, multi-user logic, collaboration fragmentation, and multi-configuration deployment. Building on these findings, the thesis proposes an authoring ecosystem model articulated in three layers (Components, Widgets, Templates) and connected by cross-level Behaviours, and validates it through the Prototyper MVP, an editor implemented on the ATON framework. The contribution is twofold: a conceptual framework for nested, role-aware authoring of hybrid heritage experiences, and a working open-source implementation that lowers the technical threshold for nondevelopers while preserving the expressive depth required by complex cultural heritage productions.