Bridging the Gap: Using Mobile Augmented Reality to Reconnect Museum Artifacts at Lofotr Viking Museum in Norway with Their Original Contexts

Museums frequently display artefacts removed from the landscapes where they were found and used, weakening visitors’ ability to understand object–place relationships. This article investigates whether mobile augmented reality (AR) can help re-establish such relationships by re-placing museum objects within their archaeological contexts. At the Lofotr Viking Museum (Borg, Lofoten, Norway), a prototype mobile AR application was developed that anchors full-scale reconstructions to the original settlement footprint and embeds selected museum artefacts as interactive 3D objects within these reconstructed environments.

The prototype was refined through an iterative design cycle and evaluated in two in-situ test rounds (N = 31; January 2025 and September 2025) using short post-use surveys and go-along observation. The evaluation focuses on (1) usability and interaction clarity, and (2) object–place comprehension in a hybrid setting where physical reconstructions, archaeological absence, and digital overlays coexist.

The results show that mobile AR can enhance visitors’ understanding of artefacts’ original spatial relations, but that spatial placement alone is not enough. Understanding improved when explicit narrative cues, especially audio prompts, clearly connected digital objects to their counterparts in the indoor exhibition. At the same time, minor tracking drift and ambiguous visual similarity between physical and digital structures produced disproportionate confusion in areas where reconstructions and overlays competed for attention.

It is argued that successful heritage AR in hybrid museum landscapes depends less on the novelty of digital reconstructions than on careful coordination of narrative guidance, visual differentiation, and spatial anchoring. The study contributes empirical evidence on where object–place understanding breaks down in real-world use and proposes design strategies for reducing interpretive ambiguity.