Design and Test of a Multi-Media Web Platform Prototype Based on People’s Preferences, to Increase Cultural Heritage Awareness

Cultural heritage significantly influences the transmission of history from the past to the present and future. The core of protecting cultural heritage is inheritance, making sure the heritages can be sustainable forever. Various ICT methods facilitate the dissemination and preservation of cultural heritage information. However, traditional ICT platforms often focus on official authority perspectives, neglecting users’ preferences for retrieving cultural heritage information. To address this, a hypothetical media platform was developed to collect people’s preferences for cultural heritage content and media types through a questionnaire, leading to the creation of a new multi-media platform. For demonstration purposes, Strijp-S, an industrial cultural heritage site in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, was used as a case study. A questionnaire was administered to test the prototype’s effectiveness and compare it with a comprehensive search engine like Google. Independent and paired-samples t-tests were conducted to analyze the results, demonstrating that the dedicated multi-media platform prototype was more effective than Google in raising awareness of Strijp-S. These findings indicate that a platform designed based on users’ preferences can enhance public awareness of cultural heritage. This approach can assist policymakers in developing platforms to promote local cultural heritage effectively.