Challenges in Transitioning from Desktop 3D to Extended Reality Space: The Case of a Virtual Museum Application

Shifting from traditional desktop 3D environments to extended reality (XR) presents several challenges.These challenges are more intense in applications that require audio, visual graphics and navigation controls, such as cultural heritage and virtual museum applications.While many studies focus on the general features of XR, they often fail to address the specific difficulties involved in adapting desktop applications for XR experiences.This paper explores the challenges of transitioning a virtual museum application developed for a desktop 3D environment to an XR platform.We performed a thematic analysis to identify and classify the main challenges into eight categories: development, content adaptation, accessibility, user experience, cognitive load and fatigue, technical challenges, cross-platform compatibility, and data privacy.