The design of location-based games (LBGs) for cultural heritage should ensure the active participation and contribution of local communities and heritage professionals to achieve contextual relevance, importance, and content validity. This paper presents an approach and methods of the participatory and co-design of LBGs that promote awareness and learning about the intangible cultural heritage of craftsmanship and artisanal technology throughout a long-term project from sensitization to implementation. Following the design thinking process, we outline the participatory methods (and reflect on results and lessons learnt) of involving cultural heritage professionals, local communities, and visitors (users) of museums and cultural settlements, mainly: field visits, design workshops, field playtesting, and field studies. We discuss issues of participatory design that we experienced throughout the project such as participant centrality and representativeness, producing tangible output from meetings, co-creation of content via playtesting, and implications from the pandemic. This work contributes a case of participatory and co-design of LBGs for cultural heritage that is characterized by longevity and engagement throughout the design process for three LBGs of a museum network in different cultural sites.

Collaborative mobile augmented reality (MAR) has emerged as a promising tool in the field of education. This technology enables multiple users to interact with digital content overlaid on the physical world through their mobile devices. Collaborative MAR combined with tangible elements enhances learning by integrating physical objects that can be manipulated and interacted with in the augmented reality environment, providing a hands-on and immersive educational experience. This study explores the impact of tangible mobile augmented reality on collaboration and object manipulation. Our goal is to understand how mobile devices’ manipulation affects collocated students' collaboration in tangible MAR in terms of ease of use and collaboration. The study involves participants working in pairs to facilitate collaboration through a MAR game for developing the computational thinking skills of primary school students. Our goal is to compare the perceived behaviors and interactions that emerged in two distinct MAR settings: (1) Stand-mounted device condition, where the device is fixed on a mobile stand, and (2) Hand-held device condition, where the device is held by one of the team's players. The same task is simulated in both settings to allow for direct comparison. The results of this study can help inform the design and development of future MAR systems and provide insights into the potential benefits and challenges in terms of collaboration and object manipulation.

User navigation in public installations displaying 3D content is mostly supported by mid-air interactions using motion sensors, such as Microsoft Kinect. On the other hand, smartphones have been used as external controllers of large-screen installations or game environments, and they may also be effective in supporting 3D navigations. This paper aims to examine whether a smartphone-based control is a reliable alternative to mid-air interaction for four degrees of freedom (4-DOF) fist-person navigation, and to discover suitable interaction techniques for a smartphone controller. For this purpose, we setup two studies: A comparative study between smartphone-based and Kinect-based navigation, and a gesture elicitation study to collect user preferences and intentions regarding 3D navigation methods using a smartphone. The results of the first study were encouraging, as users with smartphone input performed at least as good as with Kinect and most of them preferred it as a means of control, whilst the second study produced a number of noteworthy results regarding proposed user gestures and their stance towards using a mobile phone for 3D navigation.

This paper explores the integration of student-generated challenges (SGC) within tangible mobile augmented reality (TMAR) games as a strategy to enhance computational thinking (CT) skills in young learners. CT, which includes problem-solving, abstraction, and algorithmic reasoning, is a vital competency for success in the digital age. TMAR technology uniquely combines physical and digital interactions, providing immersive, hands-on experiences that engage students in real-world problem-solving and make CT skill development more intuitive and compelling. By incorporating SGC, a learner-centered approach where students create their own content – in our case, design challenges – for themselves or peers, the proposed method promotes creativity, critical thinking, and learner agency in game-based learning. The effectiveness of this approach was compared to a gameplay-only method in a single-session experiment involving 33 elementary students, aged 8 to 10 years, randomly assigned to experimental (SGC with gameplay) and control (gameplay-only) groups. Although no statistically significant differences were found, the experimental group outperformed the control group with a moderate effect size (Cohen’s d = 0.48, partial η² = 0.058), suggesting a potentially meaningful impact of SGC on CT development. Findings from this exploration revealed positive attitudes toward learning and increased engagement with the SGC strategy. The study also identified challenges and provided valuable insights for more effective integration of student-generated challenges within TMAR games. The paper concludes with design considerations aimed at enhancing CT development, enriching learning experiences, and guiding future research in this area.

Expert reviews of mobile games for cultural heritage (MG-CH) may predictively assess various aspects of game and content design in an iterative development process. They are not common because finding experts with knowledge for all aspects of MG-CH is difficult, while related heuristic sets are lengthy. Furthermore, ecologically valid evaluations of MG-CH must be performed in the field and examine various dimensions of playability, including gameplay, usability, functionality, and contextual factors about the location and the cultural content. To address those challenges, we have constructed a formative, empirical design review method of MG-CH, which requires experts to perform field playtesting in pairs, with minimal researcher intervention. We have refined the approach to collect data and insights about various aspects of playability; and then applied it in the evaluation of two MG-CH for UNESCO intangible CH sites that follow the same system and gameplay design. We found that the method yields many performance indicators and playability findings; facilitates participants to propose thoughtful recommendations; and affords in-situ production of cultural content.