Research & Publications

Academic output of my thinking and experiments.

2025
Journal Article

Novice designers in museums: A constructively aligned framework bridging formal and informal learning through artefact analysis

AYSEL, KARDELEN; TÜRKMEN, DORUK

We investigate how an artefact analysis framework, grounded in constructive alignment principles, can bridge formal design education with informal museum environments. Through three-phased qualitative research; fieldwork with 26 students, focus group with seven, and subsequent toolkit development, we tested and iteratively refined this framework. Our analysis of 78 student-submitted artefact boards revealed significant patterns in how novices engage with design principles: while students excelled at identifying explicit functions, they struggled with symbolic interpretation and complex spatial relationships. Focus group discussions diagnosed the causes of these challenges, revealing a need for critical pedagogical interventions such as enhanced conceptual scaffolding and multimodal learning supports. This paper details the iterative design process of using these findings to create a refined pedagogical toolkit. The resulting toolkit addresses the identified challenges through terminology clarification, progressive scaffolding, and hands-on visual aids, providing a practical model for enhancing learning transfer between museum and studio environments.

DESIGN EDUCATION MUSEUM LEARNING ARTEFACT ANALYSIS CONSTRUCTIVE ALIGNMENT
Read Article
2025
Doctoral Dissertation

Heritage at play: Designing roleplaying games to enhance museum experience

TÜRKMEN, DORUK

This research explores the transformative potential of role-playing games (RPGs) to enhance museum experiences by embedding cultural heritage into gameplay. Focusing on the Izmir Archaeology and Ethnography Museum, the study examines how RPGs can cultivate meaningful museum experiences. By integrating tangible artifacts with intangible narratives, the research aims to craft play experiences that resonate with diverse audiences, fostering a deeper understanding of cultural heritage and museums. The study employs a research through design methodology, emphasizing an iterative design process and playtesting to explore the design of a computer role-playing game (CRPG) encompassing the museum experience. Design challenges include ensuring meaningful gameplay experiences informed by instructional museum content, designing complex gameplay elements for audiences with varying game familiarity, and elevating informal learning in a cultural heritage context. By investigating game design and game-based learning methodologies, the research leverages design practices to explore a multidisciplinary design space. The research leverages design practices to explore a multidisciplinary design space, treating RPG design for museums as a design situation to generate applicable knowledge through design activity. The findings reveal both theoretical and practical implications for the use of RPGs in museum settings. The study demonstrates how RPGs can contextualize museum artefacts, foster curiosity and engagement with heritage narratives, and provide a meaningful learning experience. The research contributes to the growing field of game-based learning in cultural heritage, offering insights into the design process and evaluation of serious games for museums.

GAME DESIGN MUSEUM EXPERIENCE CULTURAL HERITAGE ROLE-PLAYING GAMES GAME-BASED LEARNING
Download Dissertation
2024
Journal Article

Cultural Heritage Manifestation in Computer Role-Playing Games for Enhancing Museum Experience: A Model Proposal

TÜRKMEN, DORUK; SAVASTA, DANIELE

This article proposes a model for integrating computer role-playing games with museum experiences to enhance cultural heritage learning with a particular focus on design. Centered at the Izmir Archaeology Museum, the study delves into the design of a serious game aimed at enriching both the educational and experiential facets of museum visits. The model highlights the use of gameplay components and design patterns to manifest tangible and intangible heritage content, thereby promoting visitor awareness and understanding of cultural heritage. Through a provisional game scenario based on the museum's prehistoric artifact exhibition, the study illustrates how a gameplay design approach that is informed by heritage content displayed in the museum can be prototyped. The proposed model not only aims to make museum visits more engaging, but also seeks to contribute to the broader discourse on game design, game-based learning, and museum experience.

GAME DESIGN MUSEUM EXPERIENCE CULTURAL HERITAGE ROLE-PLAYING GAMES GAME-BASED LEARNING
Read Article
2022
Conference Paper

Work of Art in the Age of Metaverse: Exploring digital art through augmented reality

VARİNLİOĞLU, GÜZDEN; OĞUZ, KAYA; TÜRKMEN, DORUK; ERCAN, İREM; TURHAN, GÖZDE DAMLA

The creation of artworks in the metaverse as unique files that exist on a blockchain world of the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have revitalized discussions over the uniqueness of a work of art. Similar to the art world market in Second Life, this has presented a novel way to collect imported or natively digital art. This raises the following questions: What are the processes that artwork undergoes in the web 3.0 or metaverse? What constitutes the reproduction/recreation of a work of art? Which tools can be exploited to create more content for this universe? How does this new approach affect ownership, scarcity and authenticity? Unlike art productions that find a place in museums or galleries, Daragaç Art Collective independently uses the streets both as their location, and as their canvas. This creates the need to store the artworks as fully as possible in any form available. With this aim, a team of architects, designers and software engineers designed, implemented and tested a mobile application to represent and recreate the experience of the artworks in the digital environment. The artworks of independent artists were collected virtually and compiled in a relational database over the years, and are displayed in their geographical coordinates, and represented in the 3D world. After discussion on how to represent the artworks, it was decided that some only exist in videos and photographs, therefore, we decided to use the archaeology of digital data and present them in 3D space, to ensure their continued existence once they had been performed or exhibited. Illustrated by the case of our augmented application, this paper discusses the reproduction of ownership and scarcity of artworks in terms of preserving a cultural heritage in the metaverse.

ARTWORK AUGMENTED REALITY METAVERSE DIGITAL HERITAGE PHOTOGRAMMETRIC MODELING SCARCITY
Read Article