Local food has become a significant attraction of travel, and consuming local food involves sustainability by reducing the distance the food comes from the production. In other words, travelers provide benefits for destination and environment in addition to their pleasures and memories from local food consumption. However, local food is unfamiliar to travelers in the new place, and it is a challenge that requires much time and effort to choose and find the information.
In this sense, Augmented Reality (AR) and gamification can derive a possibility to support travelers to consume local food. AR can provide travelers with an easy way to acquire information by over-layering the virtual items on top of the real environment in one screen. Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) operating on mobile devices has further advantages of mobility. Moreover, gamification can motivate travelers and increase their pleasure using game elements.
In this thesis, the benefits of MAR and gamification were explored through design and evaluation of a gamified MAR application prototype to encourage travelers’ local food consumption. From the user study with observations, interviews and initial concept evaluation, tourists’ needs were identified, and UX goals were defined as adventure, autonomy, and competence as to what experiences the application provides. The goals guided the design and evaluation of a gamified MAR application. The application recognizes the real food through an AR mobile screen and displays basic food information with name/ingredient and 'food miles' which refers to how far the main ingredients come from the distance. Besides, gamification was applied for the users’ actions as collecting the food/ingredients and assigning levels according to how much local food a user consumed.
After two rounds of paper prototyping design and evaluation, the final interactive prototype was created in the prototyping tool, Torch, working on iOS-based iPhone (In this study, iPhone 7). A total of 10 participants tested the interactive prototype. The final evaluation of the interactive prototype indicated that users were highly motivated to consume local food using the application, although the long-term effect of the motivation is uncertain. The test users enjoyed the prototype due to the use of new AR technologies and gamified capabilities. Notably, users reacted positively from the experience of competence based on game elements and the experience of autonomy based on exploring various information in the user’s context with easy interaction.
In this study, a variety of factors such as MAR, gamification, the specific context of food consumption in travel, and motivational purpose were brought together and showed the possibility of a gamified MAR application. In order to develop further after this research, considering the findings obtained from user studies, design and evaluation, it is expected that more advanced designs will boost more potential by adding feedback and interaction with personalization, social aspects, and multi-sensory feedback or interaction in the future. In addition, as AR technology is further developed, and more people are accustomed to the use of technology, the gamified MAR application could provide more useful and fruitful experience in the future
