Varying user agency and interaction opportunities in a home mobile augmented virtuality story

Abstract

New opportunities for immersive storytelling experiences have arrived through the technology in mobile phones, including the ability to overlay or register digital content on a user’s real world surroundings, to greater immerse the user in the world of the story. This raises questions around the methods and freedom to interact with the digital elements, that will lead to a more immersive and engaging experience. To investigate these areas the Augmented Virtuality (AV) mobile phone application Home Story was developed for iOS devices. It allows a user to move and interact with objects in a virtual environment displayed on their phone, by physically moving in the real world, completing particular actions to progress a story. A mixed methods study with Home Story either guided participants to the next interaction, or offered them increased agency to choose what object to interact with next. Virtual objects could also be interacted with in one of three ways; imagining the interaction, an embodied interaction using the user’s free hand, or a virtual interaction performed on the phone’s touchscreen. Similar levels of immersion were recorded across both study conditions suggesting both can be effective, though highlighting different issues in each case. The embodied free hand interactions proved particularly memorable, though further work is required to improve their implementation, arising from their novelty and lack of familiarity.