The design of a location-based transit game for digital placemaking

Abstract

Urban residents often use public transit to travel throughout the city yet find it difficult to learn about events in one's neighborhood. Transit rides can also be isolating and routine, despite seeing the same people regularly. As a result, there are opportunities to connect with others on the same route. While digital technologies such as community systems, social media, and public displays have been studied to understand how people engage with each other in their community, little is known about the challenges people face when searching for local information while commuting. Our research explores how one form of technology, location-based games (LBGs), supports urban commuters in digital placemaking. We present a prototype of an LBG, City Explorer, that allows riders to maintain an awareness of location-specific events and to support the sharing of community information. City Explorer is designed for public transit riders in a metropolitan city to collaborate with other riders, supporting community awareness, and facilitating discussions related to places on their transit route.