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ABSTRACT
As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, digital technologies impact the way humans experience places and spaces in (smart) cities. To some extent, these smart technologies are intertwined with the urban living enabling the augmentation of the city’s space and creating new opportunities for playful urban engagement. Moreover, touristic cities are becoming the arena of novel hospitality services, emerging from the widespread use of digital technologies and internet-based platforms. At the same time, visitors look for increasingly “authentic” travel experiences that provide meaningful interactions with locals. New business models, such as those emerging from the sharing economy, flourished in response to these fresh needs and opportunities. However, establishing points of dialogue that bring benefits to both residents and tourists is a complex task that still needs inquiry. Here we extend on previous efforts by proposing a playful immersive experience that focuses on creating an esthetically engaging environment for direct information exchange between locals and visitors. We investigate how technology can mediate and augment such information sharing, engaging tourists in a playful and immersive experience. Results of an experiment with 15 users are analyzed and presented to provide new insights to the HCI community.
Acknowledgments
We would like to really thank Ana Bettencourt, the designer who created all the visual elements of the web platform. Moreover, many thanks to all participants that took part in the study and enabled this research to be possible.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. With the term “experience”, we intend “how a user interacts with and experiences a digital system. It includes a person’s perceptions of utility, enjoyability, ease of use, and efficiency.” (source: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/user-experience).
2. We use the term dialogue to refer to “a conversation between two or more persons” (source: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/dialogue); and we refer to a conversation as “an informal interchange of thoughts, information, ideas or opinions about a particular issue, etc., by spoken words or other nonoral means of communication” (source: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/conversation).
10. https://flutter.dev/.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Catia Prandi
Catia Prandi is assistant professor at the Departments of Computer Science and Engineering of the University of Bologna (Italy), and faculty fellow at the Interactive Technologies Institute (ITI/LARSyS) (Portugal). Her research focuses on Human-Computer Interaction and interactive storytelling for social good, with a specific interest in users’ participation.
Valentina Nisi
Valentina Nisi is a tenured Associate Professor at IST, University of Lisbon, Adjunct Faculty at the HCI Institute Carnegie Mellon University and founding researcher at the Interactive Technologies Institute LARSyS. Her research encompasses Interactive Digital Storytelling Gaming and HCI, focusing on bringing awareness to pressing social and environmental issues.
Chiara Ceccarini
Chiara Ceccarini is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Bologna (Italy). Her research topic lies in the of area of HCI and data visualization, with the main purpose to design and evaluate interactive systems to foster changing behavior toward a sustainable development.
Nuno Nunes
Nuno Nunes is Full professor at Tecnico U. Lisbon and the President of the Interactive Technologies Institute (ITI) part of the LARSYS Associated Laboratory. He’s also adjunct faculty at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. He’s currently serving as National Director of the Carnegie Mellon International Partnership.