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Experience History of a walled city now! "Designing the future of interactive & immersive guided tours!"
Experience History of a walled city now! "Designing the future of interactive & immersive guided tours!"
Experience History of a walled city now! "Designing the future of interactive & immersive guided tours!"
iterin - is my final project during my Master of Arts in Design (Distinction) - University of Central
Lancashire (AAS campus). This project is an interactive guiding edutainment experience in the city of Thessaloniki which uses AR and MR concepts in order to enhance visitor experience, turning a traditional guiding into an entertaining, fun and learning experience.
3 semesters
While I realised that people love interactive experiences, I also noticed that there is an absence in the use of interactive media on many guiding tours around the world. Especially in Greece, a very historic part of the world, guiding tours include: either basic media like sound installations or tablet use (where tour guides show pictures of how a place used to be in the old times) or might not at all use some kind of media. This absence of interactive media results in guiding tours that lacks joyful, exploring or even playful experiences. I strongly believe that the key element in the rising of heritage tourism industry is to provide travellers with unforgettable experiences where they can “live” what they are actually watching using emerging technology as an ally. Augmented Reality, mixed reality elements and interactivity are the synthetic core of my design proposal.
Another considerable absence or problem in guiding tours is that there is nothing left after participants experience is over except some photos or small amateur videos during the route. While I was thinking about this challenge I remembered this phrase from design.google.com
That’s the solution for my problem I said, young people need interactions but also they want to star in their experience. So, I strongly believe that in every interactive experience we also need to provide the participants with a memory that can be shared so they may revive it at any time later.
In conclusion, one of my project’s main goals is to take the advantage of emerging technologies and design a guiding application that will provide fun, edutainment and provide a video “commemorative” of the experience.
While I realised that people love interactive experiences, I also noticed that there is an absence in the use of interactive media on many guiding tours around the world. Especially in Greece, a very historic part of the world, guiding tours include: either basic media like sound installations or tablet use (where tour guides show pictures of how a place used to be in the old times) or might not at all use some kind of media. This absence of interactive media results in guiding tours that lacks joyful, exploring or even playful experiences. I strongly believe that the key element in the rising of heritage tourism industry is to provide travellers with unforgettable experiences where they can “live” what they are actually watching using emerging technology as an ally. Augmented Reality, mixed reality elements and interactivity are the synthetic core of my design proposal.
Another considerable absence or problem in guiding tours is that there is nothing left after participants experience is over except some photos or small amateur videos during the route. While I was thinking about this challenge I remembered this phrase from design.google.com
That’s the solution for my problem I said, young people need interactions but also they want to star in their experience. So, I strongly believe that in every interactive experience we also need to provide the participants with a memory that can be shared so they may revive it at any time later.
In conclusion, one of my project’s main goals is to take the advantage of emerging technologies and design a guiding application that will provide fun, edutainment and provide a video “commemorative” of the experience.
My primary research included questionnaires with professional guiding companies from the city of Thessaloniki. This research took place in guiding walks which I participated in. Also, I conducted interviews with a well-known archaeologist, a storyteller, a museologist and a gamification specialist. My secondary research included, firstly, researching literature about all the historic background of the guiding route I am designing. Secondly, a thorough research with innovations in designing experiences outdoors but also indoors with examples from museums, thematic parks etc. Lastly, it also included reading articles and books about museum-pedagogy, Thessaloniki’s history and urban legends, User Experience, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality practices.
This project is the design of a guiding edutainment application in the city of Thessaloniki using Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) practices. One of the priorities in the designing procedure of this application is to develop a new enhanced travelling experience in the city of Thessaloniki. Moreover, critical part for the design experience of the traveller will be to actually “live” the history of the city in the way locals lived it through the years. Another crucial part of the guiding experience will be to produce an immersive experience which will allow the visitor to getting to know the history of the city while also entertaining and sharing all this experience in social media keeping that memory alive when he gets back home.