Abstract
Abstract. With increasing technical feasibility of extended reality (XR) on smartphones and tablets, we also witness increasing versatility in the use of the mixed reality (MR) (i.e., rather than augmented or virtual) in utility-oriented apps (e.g., for navigation, indoor/outdoor spatial planning, entertainment and location based gaming. In cases where user adaptation and adherence is important, the design of the story itself, visualization and interaction in the game must be engaging, and ideally support spatial knowledge acquisition. In this paper, we briefly review the literature on creating engaging MR experiences for a location based game, and present a case study in which we feature a location based MR game (SBB Stories). We conceptualized, designed and implemented the SBB Stories with user-centered design methods in collaboration with the SBB (Swiss Federal Railways). In this paper we feature an interactive story that took place in Zurich’s main train station in 1937. Our findings from several cycles of user studies shows an increased spatial awareness of the surroundings as participants used the SBB Stories app. Importantly, participants reported the blending of historical and current visual elements as an outstanding and inspiring experience. Besides a high score of 83.75/100 in a standardized usability test, and a similarly high score of 4.25/5.00 in a standardized user engagement scale, all participants reported that they would spend extra time at the train station to play this game, suggesting that the app was indeed engaging.
Highlights
AND BACKGROUNDAs part of the ‘digitalswitzerland challenge’ in 2017, the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) initiated a challenge stating that Zurich main station will become world’s most digital station within two years (Leimgruber, SBB, 2017)
There are tangible rewards: A user can collect points by finishing quests, and when they collect enough points, they can trade them for a variety of vouchers usable at Zurich main station
The game concept we featured as a case study SBB Stories reached the goals defined by the research team and by the users and ‘added value’ in terms of increased spatial awareness, usability and user engagement
Summary
AND BACKGROUNDAs part of the ‘digitalswitzerland challenge’ in 2017, the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) initiated a challenge stating that Zurich main station will become world’s most digital station within two years (Leimgruber, SBB, 2017). The concept (and following development, implementation, testing) presented in this paper, i.e., the location based extended reality mobile game that blends past and present, is inspired by this initiative. In this context, the overarching goal of the research was to identify what makes an MR game engaging while supporting spatial learning, and implement and test a creative concept that may be of interest to a large number of users. The overarching objective was to identify elements of design and interaction that engages people in smartphone MR games while increasing spatial awareness of their surroundings; whereas a specific question was how to attract and maintain the
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