Transmedia Stories are becoming an increasingly important technique for the tourism industry. They are successful tools to engage, inspire and gather audiences online and offline. In this article, we describe the design, implementation and evaluation of Fragments of Laura, a bespoke Transmedia Storytelling (TS) experience designed to involve visitors in developing knowledge and awareness about the cultural and natural heritage of Madeira Island. Fragments of Laura (FoL) is composed of two interconnected components: a Location-Aware Multimedia Story, and a Hypermedia Platform populated with locally collected testimonies and interviews. Results from the extensive evaluation of Fragments of Laura, highlights the potential of interactive multimedia, TS in particular, in engaging tourists with the destination values and community. Our contribution is twofold, on one hand we extend on the state of the art of multimedia interactive storytelling, with the description of the Fragments of Laura TS artifact. On the other hand, results from FoL evaluation highlight how the artifact impacts on the tourism experience its implications for the design of future tourism driven TS experiences.

Life-supporting ecosystems are facing impending destruction. The human–computer interaction (HCI) community must rethink how to design technological interventions that reconcile concepts and theories for ecological computing. Proponents of sustainable HCI have pushed for tools and systems that aim to decenter the human in a shift toward posthuman design—a theoretical approach that challenges the assumption that only humans are stakeholders of technology as it increasingly shapes the future. Building on the iconic value of whales and the economic impact of whale watching as a form of ecotourism, we developed Aqua, a digital tool that leverages the potential of citizen science to engage tourists in marine-biodiversity awareness and conservation. This manuscript is advancing the field of sustainable HCI and tourism applications in two ways: first, we deliver an artifact contribution by designing and implementing a digital tool to enhance whale-watching activities. Second, we offer an empirical research contribution through observation and data gathering while comparing participants’ experiences of a whale-watching trip with and without the digital tool. Finally, preliminary insights are provided to inform the design of future digital tools aimed at promoting environmental conservation and citizen-science approaches among tourists. This work presents progression in understanding and informs the design of digital tools to engage tourists in novel and sustainable experiences.

Location-based services, narratives and interactive experiences have a substantial tradition in human–computer interaction. Building on this background, we report the iterative design process, prototyping and evaluation of Seven Stories, a location-based narrative experience. The design includes two novel features that aim to link the user experience more closely to its physical context: visual markers scanning and a narrator. We have evaluated Seven Stories with two studies. Study 1, with 12 participants, was conducted using qualitative methods to assess the overall user experience. Study 2, with 21 participants, was conducted using quantitative methods, to evaluate the role of the markers and narrator as specific design features. Our contribution is to illustrate, through both qualitative and quantitative findings, how these two novel features influence the user experience, and what implications they have for design.