An Analytical Study on the Immersive Emotional Experience Characteristics of Chinese Historical Museums Based on the KANO Model

Immersive technology is steering China's history museums toward interactive, emotion-centred digital exhibitions, yet current designs still suffer from limited interactivity and weak affective impact. Drawing on flow theory and Norman's three-level emotional design, we integrate the KANO model to isolate twelve core affective attributes (C1-C12) and, via SPSS and Better-Worse analysis, build a visitor-satisfaction metric and optimization hierarchy. Tests at the Palace, Hunan, Sanxingdui and Shanghai (East Wing) museums verify the framework. Sensory Appeal, Spatial Presence and Multimodal Integration emerge as must-have factors; Aesthetic Consistency, Operational Fluency, Autonomous Exploration and Narrative Openness are performance factors; the remaining five attributes function as excitement factors. Shanghai Museum delivers the strongest overall immersion, while Hunan and Sanxingdui excel in aesthetics and narrative. The KANO-C12 scheme supplies a succinct, actionable tool for refining affective design in immersive heritage exhibitions.