User requirements analysis for a mobile augmented reality tool supporting geography fieldwork

Abstract

The combined use of mobile Augmented Reality (AR) and various visualizations has a potential to support geography fieldwork. Central to the development of a usable mobile tool is adopting the principle of User-Centered Design (UCD), the first phase of which is identifying user requirements. This research first establishes the current situation of using (mobile) AR in education based on a literature review. At the same time, in a real educational human geography fieldwork executed in China, through a survey, observation and interviews, we have investigated how teachers and students currently conduct the fieldwork, what difficulties they experience and their expectations and suggestions for a future mobile tool. It was found out that it will be practical to make use of a new mobile AR tool in geography fieldwork. In the fieldwork in China, students used their mobile phones to mainly collect data and browse digital maps of the fieldwork area, with the purposes of completing the fieldwork tasks and assisting them to geographically understand the fieldwork area, respectively. They also experienced some difficulties, e.g., the time required for and troubles in switching between different mobile applications and the data collected in the field lacking locational details. Both teachers and students, as users, expressed their expectations of a future mobile tool and indicated some basic key requirements, e.g., labeling geo-locations of all field collected data, making notes, recording voice data and field walking routes and optionally viewing various materials (maps, satellite images, etc.) of the fieldwork area.