A Multi-Criteria Evaluation Method for Interactive Interface Layouts in Smart Digital Museums Based on RANCOM–LOPCOW–TOPSIS

Digitalization and intelligent interaction technologies are transforming museum services, making interactive interfaces important for cultural information access and user experience. Existing studies often examine aesthetics, usability, visual cognition, or emotional experience separately. To address this gap, this study proposes a multi-criteria evaluation method for interactive interface layouts in smart digital museums. The evaluation system includes nine indicators across layout aesthetics, visual cognition, and emotional experience: symmetry, density score, orderliness, total fixation duration, average pupil diameter, saccade count, pleasure, arousal, and dominance. Six layouts were evaluated using layout aesthetics calculations, an eye-tracking experiment with 32 participants, and the Pleasure–Arousal–Dominance (PAD) scale. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the eye-tracking and PAD data. RANCOM and LOPCOW were used to calculate the subjective and objective weights, respectively, and TOPSIS was used to rank the layouts. Ranking robustness was examined through 54 weight-perturbation scenarios, while ranking agreement was assessed using Spearman’s and Kendall’s coefficients and four alternative multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) procedures. L1 ranked first with a relative closeness of 0.876, followed by L5 and L6, while L4 ranked last with 0.120. The baseline ranking was retained in 51 of the 54 scenarios, with a consistency rate of 94.44%. Spearman’s coefficients ranged from 0.943 to 1.000, and Kendall’s coefficients ranged from 0.867 to 1.000. These results indicate relative ranking robustness under the tested scenarios and high agreement within the current dataset. Layouts with balanced spatial relationships, continuous functional modules, and clear visual paths showed more favorable descriptive patterns in visual cognition and emotional experience. The method provides a quantifiable and interpretable approach for comparing smart digital museum interface layouts, while its broader applicability remains to be examined.