Web of Stories. Stories and games with mixed reality on mobile devices

• Main Author: Brás, Diogo Nuno da Gama
• Publication Date: 2024
• Format: Master thesis
• Language: eng
• Source: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Download full: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/176240
• topic: Cultural Heritage; Augmented Reality; Gamification; Storytelling; Domínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Engenharia Eletrotécnica, Eletrónica e Informática

Cultural heritage includes all the cultural assets, traditions, and knowledge of a group of people, collected and inherited over generations. It is up to those in the present to preserve and transmit their communities’ tangible and intangible assets. With the advancements in technologies such as augmented reality, systems focused on perpetuating cultural heritage while providing new levels of accessibility to the public have emerged. As a way to progress towards improving the region of Trafaria in Portugal and avoiding its possible gentrification, a gamified augmented reality storytelling platform has been developed to help preserve and transmit Trafaria’s rich cultural heritage. The platform revolves around located interactive narratives which users can create and follow while being rewarded. The objective of this work focuses on the overall expansion of this platform by exploring features that could draw the attention of users and maintain their engagement. These features also aim to offer users a fun and effective learning experience by weaving in some game characteristics into augmented reality activities that incorporate cultural information. The features are further unified through a mechanism that seeks to offer a rewarding overlaying storyline. User studies were conducted to evaluate whether the implemented features fulfilled their objectives by assessing various usability and experience aspects. The results were positive and also revealed areas with improvement potential. The solution tries to ensure the preservation of the cultural legacy of Trafaria but it is also generalized and can be applied to any other region. It also tries to contribute as a great educational resource, encouraging its users to seek and discover more information both within and outside the platform in order to develop knowledge on other communities’ cultures.