User evaluation of a storytelling application assisting visitors in protected nature areas

Abstract

Storytelling has been part of human culture throughout history. Stories become profound when they are related to real places. In this paper we look at the use of location-based media and augmented reality to create storytelling experiences to assist visitors in a protected nature area. This was done in collaboration with an adventure tourism company to find alternatives to mountain signposts and take a technological approach promoting self-motivated tourism. Users (N = 30) tested a location-based AR application for mobile devices. Participants were split into two groups to test two variations of the application: a text-only variation was compared to an AR-based variation. Overall user experience for the two variations was evaluated using subjective measures. The results from our study indicate a higher immersion and a sense of flow in the AR-based variation of the application. Similarly, the AR-based variation also elicited higher desirability compared to the text-only variation.