Attention, stimulus and Augmented Reality for urban daily-life education in a social peripheral setting: the Streets that tell stories

Abstract

This paper aims to identify which design strategies can be considered when exploring different levels of stimulation of cognition and attention of the user in the development of educational location-based applications used in public urban space. We proposed the Stimulus Level Framework, divided into linear, circular and spiral stimuli, based on a theoretical reflection. It is a tool to help designers to think about educational and contextual digital experiences. Afterwards, we made a practical reflection about the proposed framework in a real context. An Augmented Reality project integrated with urban furniture of a historical street in the city of Fortaleza, Brazil, was proposed. Thinking about the design decisions based on the levels of the framework, helped in the process of data collection. It also helped in the proposition of elements that could stimulate the user's attention in different levels, having the technology as an element that unifies the whole experience.