Engaging Users with an AR Pervasive Game for Personal Urban Awareness

Abstract

The combination of Augmented Reality (AR) and pervasive games in urban environments offers a great opportunity for learning about a specific urban environment. Since pervasive games are played in a physical space, the user familiarity with such environment might play a key role in the user motivation and in the whole user experience. In this paper, we analyse how an augmented reality pervasive game is experienced in an urban game. The aim of the game is to engage people in informal learning activities increasing their knowledge about a specific area. We also introduce the concept of Personal Urban Awareness (PUA) as a way to represent the level at which a person feels connected and knows about a specific environment. Thus, we try to find out whether the user engagement and PUA are related. In order to research this, we run an experiment where two groups of users, familiar with the environment and not familiar with it, play the augmented reality game in an urban space. The results suggest that AR pervasive games might be a good approach to engage citizens and improve their awareness about a specific area.