An Interactive Virtual Reality Approach to Understanding Cultural Heritage Through Storyliving: A Case Study of Seoul City Wall (Hanyangdoseong) in South Korea

In this study, we developed and evaluated a nonlinear narrative virtual reality approach to enhancing the understanding of cultural heritage. The system was designed to convey the historical and cultural context of Seoul City Wall (Hanyangdoseong) while engaging users in a personalized experience. A novel “storyliving” structure was used, in which users choose the progress of the narrative. To achieve this, the methodology employed three key components: evaluating criteria to assess Hanyangdoseong’s sense-of-place, clustering to create distinct scenario segments, and sticker mapping to identify spatial preferences. Our approach maximizes user immersion through selective pathways and branching stories. Initial validation results suggest that this virtual reality system can greatly deepen users’ understanding of Hanyangdoseong and demonstrate the system’s potential as an innovative tool for cultural heritage education. This study contributes to the digital transformation of cultural heritage and provides important direction for the development of virtual reality content with richer and more personalized educational experiences.