Nelli Hänninen
Augmented reality in an amusement park environment: AR concept for Linnanmäki
Bachelor’s thesis
Bachelor’s degree in Game Design
2020
Author (authors) Degree Time
Nelli Hänninen Bachelor of Culture
and Arts
April 2020 Thesis title
Augmented reality in an amusement park environment: AR concept for Linnanmäki
39 pages
8 pages of appendices Commissioned by
Linnanmäki Supervisor
Suvi Pylvänen Abstract
The objective of this thesis was to answer the question of whether an augmented reality game application would bring added value into the customer experience in Linnanmäki amusement park.
The research of this thesis included investigating the given target audience’s gaming habits to figure out their main motivators, which was achieved by reading through existing
research after which surveys, interviews and application testing sessions were held with target audience members. Also included in the thesis research was an introduction into augmented reality as a technology and its uses today in gaming and the amusement park environment.
The productive part of this thesis included the creation of user personas based on the research data, a co-creation workshop conducted with target audience members to create game concepts and two user journey maps constructed for the two personas.
Due to time and resource limitations for this project, no feasible product for testing was created and therefore no testing of a prototype in the real environment was conducted.
Prototype testing would have yielded further and more precise data to answer the question.
Despite this, the data collected was able to answer the question on some level and generate a valuable research data base for possible further development of the product.
Keywords
game design, augmented reality, AR, user experience design, UX
CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION ... 5
2 PROJECT INTRODUCTION... 6
2.1 Linnanmäki ... 6
2.2 Target audience ... 7
3 AUGMENTED REALITY ... 9
3.1 History of augmented reality ... 9
3.2 How augmented reality is used today ... 12
3.3 Augmented reality in theme and amusement parks ... 16
4 RESEARCH METHODS ... 18
4.1 Survey and interviews ... 18
4.2 AR application testing ... 19
4.3 Findings ... 20
4.4 Personas... 24
5 AR CONCEPT FOR LINNANMÄKI ... 26
5.1 Co-creation workshop ... 27
5.2 Workshop findings ... 28
5.3 User journey maps ... 31
6 CONCLUSIONS ... 34
REFERENCES ... 36 LIST OF FIGURES
APPENDICES
1 INTRODUCTION
Augmented reality is technology that is still very new and unknown for many groups. It is in constant, rapid development as more testing and research is conducted on its possibilities in different circumstances. Many companies want to try their hand at integrating this new technology into their business operations.
The purpose of this thesis is to answer the question of whether a mobile game application using augmented reality would be able to bring added value to a customer’s experience visiting the Linnanmäki amusement park. This question is answered by target audience research conducted through interviews,
questionnaires and application testing as well as a co-creation workshop conducted with a group of target audience members.
This thesis will explore the process of using user experience (UX) design to conduct research into the target audience and using the findings to create a simple application concept and a plan for further development. It follows a goal- oriented design process model detailed in About Face 3 (Cooper et al. 2007), but due to time and resource limitations, will mostly focus on the research related parts from the beginning of the model and not include a finalized design. The final product will feature personas and user journey maps constructed from the
research data.
The thesis first introduces the project itself, the client, target audience and the writer’s hypothesis of the target audience. From there it proceeds to the theoretical part on augmented reality, its history and uses today. After the theoretical part, chapter 4 focuses on the research methods used in the
beginning of the thesis process to research the target audience more. Chapter 5 details the design process starting with the co-creation workshop conducted with members of the target group and continues with the writer’s design process for the final product for this thesis based on the workshop. Finally, chapter 7 will summarise the research findings, detail a short future development plan and conclude the thesis.
2 PROJECT INTRODUCTION
The goal of the project is to design and develop a mobile application for an amusement park environment. The application would feature augmented reality games that park visitors can play around the premise. The main goal would be for the application to have games that could be played in the queues of the most popular rides in the park to minimise boredom and frustration in the guests.
Future development could add features for other rides and spots around the park but the focus for now is designing for the most popular rides. As mentioned in section 1, this thesis includes mainly features user research and will not conclude with a finalized application concept.
2.1 Linnanmäki
Linnanmäki is an amusement park located in the Alppiharju district in Helsinki, Finland. It opened on the 27th of May 1950, although its roots go back all the way to 1907, when the Swedish Children’s Day model was embraced in Finland as well. Children’s Day celebrations would include lotteries, dances and circus performances and the funds raised from these events were donated to Finnish child welfare associations. In 1950 Helsinki city granted the Children’s Day planning committee an originally three-year stay at the Vesilinnanmäki park where Linnanmäki was then built.
As the park’s popularity and audience grew Lasten Päivän Säätiö, “the children’s day foundation”, was founded in 1957 by six child welfare associations. Lasten Päivän Säätiö still owns Linnanmäki today and the funds collected from the park’s operations are used to further develop and support child welfare in Finland. In 2019 the foundation donated 4.5 million euros to the cause.
The park now spans over 75 000m2 and contains 45 attractions. Additionally, the park area contains a variety of shops, arcade games, restaurants and cafes. On the same premise also operates Scandinavia’s only Sea Life attraction. The park operates on a seasonal basis and is usually open from April until October, with some exceptions like Sea Life being open all year. (Linnanmäki no date.)
2.2 Target audience
The target demographic of this application was set by Linnanmäki to be 10 to 25- year-old park visitors. The following chapter will research the player motivations of this age group to help the brainstorming of game concepts later, ensuring the game concepts created work for most of the intended audience.
Quantic Foundry has been running a research on gamer motivations since 2015 when they first created their gamer motivation profile. According to their website, so far over 400.00 individuals have taken part in their research. The research is conducted through an online survey, in which participants detail their own gaming habits. Questions include telling about games one has enjoyed recently as well as how much you enjoy a multitude of different mechanics and concepts and how often you do certain things in games. Based on the answers the algorithm
calculates the user’s profile based on the gamer motivation model seen in figure 1.
Figure 1. Gamer Motivation Model (Quantic Foundry 2020)
Quantic Foundry has divided their research data based on age groups and gender groups, and for this thesis the most essential one is their data on the primary motivations in the 13 to 25 age group (figure 2). As seen in the graph,
competition rises highest in popularity within this age group and is almost 50%
more frequent compared to the next-highest scoring motivator (Quantic Foundry 2016). In Quantic Foundry’s article Competition Is Not The Opposite Of
Community, author Nick Yee explains their findings of strong positive correlation between competition and community. They both link under the social motivator and therefore players who enjoy social interaction will enjoy any kind of social interaction in game, whether that is chatting, battling together against a shared enemy or battling against each other. (Yee. 2017.) Not only is competition the highest-ranking motivator for this age group, but also for male gamers overall.
Figure 2. Primary gaming motivations in the 13-25 age group (Quantic Foundry 2016)
For female gamers the most common motivator is completion, which is closely followed by fantasy. For this hypothesis we will focus on the completion
motivator. Gamers who rank high for completion are motivated by completing every mission, gathering every collectible and finding every secret. In the gamer motivation profile research completion has been shown to rank in the top three regardless of which segments are being examined and completion can be characterized as a low-risk, high-reward motivation. (Quantic Foundry 2016.)
Based on the data from Quantic Foundry’s (2016) research, it is expected that the upcoming target audience research will recreate this data and show the participants also ranking highly in both competition and completion. In terms of
augmented reality, the hypothesis of the author is that there will be a noticeable divide between the participants in the upcoming research. Most participants are likely to be familiar with the concept of AR and heard of the most popular
applications. Presumably most have played or at least seen someone play Pokémon GO, but not everyone will still be playing it. Even the ones who do still play it probably do not tend to use the AR functionality of it.
3 AUGMENTED REALITY
Augmented reality, or AR, is technology that integrates virtual reality into the real world, usually through a screen such as a smartphone or AR glasses. Unlike virtual reality (VR), which creates a whole entire virtual world, AR only adds elements of virtual reality into the real world. These elements can include 3D models, sound or visual effects.
3.1 History of augmented reality
In 1862 English scientist John Henry Pepper demonstrated new illusion technology, later named Pepper’s Ghost, and this technology could be
considered one of the first instances of AR technology. Pepper’s Ghost utilizes an angled glass sheet onto which an image is reflected from a hidden room by
illuminating the object or person as illustrated in figure 3. This creates an illusion of the image fading in and out of existence, like a ghost. At first it was utilized in theatre and circus performances but was later popularized when the Disney parks started to use it in several rides, most famously The Haunted Mansion and The Tower of Terror. (Cosmos 2018.)
Figure 3. Pepper’s Ghost (Cosmos 2018)
In 1957 cinematographer Morton Heilig designed and built the Sensorama (figure 4), a 3D video device that allowed users to ride a motorbike in virtual reality and experience the sensations of wind, smells, sounds and the vibrations of the road.
He went on to create four more 3D video experiences for the device, but in the end the device did not catch the interest of any significant investors and was eventually mainly used as arcade coin machines. (Brockwell 2016.)
Figure 4. Morton Heilig and his Sensorama (techradar.com 2016)
At this point in history VR and AR, as we now can differentiate them, were still considered one form of technology and it was not until 1989 that the term “virtual reality” was first coined by Jaron Lainer. In 1990 “augmented reality” made its first appearance in Boeing researcher Caudell and Mizell’s publication (Pesce 2019).
A decade later the biggest leap towards augmented reality as we know it today was made when Japanese science professor Hirokazu Kato from the Nara Institute of Science and Technology released the ARToolKit, which is an open- source software library designed to help developers create their own augmented reality software (Poetker 2019).
In the same year as Kato published the ARToolKit, Bruce Thomas from Wearable Computer Labs showcased the first outdoor mobile AR video game, called
ARQuake (figure 5). Based on the first-person shooter PC game from the 1990’s this was one of the first games that allowed players to move around without needing controllers. The game was played using a computer backpack and gyroscope and flipping down the head-mounted display allowed players to see the target monsters. Real props such as plastic guns with simulated recoil were used to shoot the monsters. (Piekarski et al. 2002.)
Figure 5. ARQuake game view and equipment for playing (Dutch Rose Media no date)
A little further down the road, Niantic popularized augmented reality to the masses when they published Pokémon GO for mobile devices in 2016. The game became massively popular in a very short time, breaking download records everywhere in just the first two weeks (Molina 2016). Pokémon GO’s popularity has sparked a wave of interest in the gaming industry with more and more companies making their own AR games. Since Pokémon GO’s launch multiple other big franchises have taken up AR projects, such as The Walking Dead: Our World (2018), Harry Potter: Wizards unite (2019), and Minecraft Earth (2019).
3.2 How augmented reality is used today
AR can be divided into four different types that are projection-based AR, marker- based AR, markerless AR and superimposition-based AR (ThinkMobiles 2020).
These different types are further explained below.
Projection-based AR
Projection-based augmented reality, which is also referred to as projected AR, uses a combination of light cameras and 3D sensing systems to be able to achieve a technique called projection mapping which allows an image to be mapped onto physical surfaces and objects (White 2018). This technology is
especially useful in factories where manuals do not need to be on either paper or heavy digital screens but can be virtually on any surface (Ryznar 2017).
Projection mapping is also a popular art form as this technology enables the making of impressive illusions on the walls of buildings or inside art galleries, as demonstrated in figure 6.
Figure 6. Projection mapping on the Façade of the Parliament in Romania (Wacom 2018)
Marker-based AR
Marker-based augmented reality (figure 7) requires special images or markers onto which the digital image is created on a screen upon recognition. Usually these markers consist of a black square in a white box of predefined size. This black square is what contains the information of the object and which the
application recognizes upon scanning it. The algorithm uses both the marker and the used device’s camera information to augment the virtual object into the physical world. (Levski no date.)
Figure 7. Marker-based AR (appreal-vr no date)
Markerless AR
Markerless augmented reality does not require previous information of the user’s environment or specialized markers or trackers to be able to bring the digital image into the real world (Schlechter 2019). It relies on GPS, gyroscope compass and accelerometer technology to map the user’s location. Location data then determines where and what type of AR data will be shown to the user.
(ThinkMobiles 2020.) This form of augmented reality is used in Niantic’s Pokémon GO (figure 8).
Figure 8. Markerless AR in Pokémon GO (iMore 2017)
Superimposition-based AR
Superimposition-based augmented reality works through object recognition and replaces parts of or the entire object with an augmented view. This type of AR can be used for example by medical professionals to examine a patient’s X-ray footage in real-time over the patient themselves (figure 9). Superimposition- based AR is also used in historical locations allowing the superimposition of what the location used to look like in the past to be placed on top of what remains of it today. (digit no date.)
Figure 9. Superimposition-based AR (digit No date)
Augmented reality as a technology has developed on a rapid speed in the past few decades and will continue developing as technology can be integrated into the everyday lives of humans less intrusively with technology like the Google Glass. Going forward, the technology’s importance and popularity in society will heavily depend on how seriously the question of how AR can improve our traditional experiences will be considered in the design world. (Pesce 2019.)
3.3 Augmented reality in theme and amusement parks
The Walt Disney parks around the world have been using augmented reality to enhance the experience in their attractions for a long time already, the previously mentioned Pepper’s Ghost effect (see section 3.1) being the first ones to be taken into use. In parks today, projection-based AR is the most commonly used.
Many so-called dark rides in the parks utilize projected AR to bring stationary parts of the rides to life, as an example The Haunted Mansion’s singing busts (Figure 10).
Figure 10. The Haunted Mansion’s singing busts with and without projected AR (Mine et al. 2012)
Film footage of actors singing and talking is projected onto the blank canvas bust models to bring the busts to life without the need of animatronics. Another
example of dark rides taking advantage of projected AR is Snow White’s Scary Adventures (Figure 11) which received a major visual overhaul in 2010 when several sections received new projection technology, which brought the old scenes back to life with new and supersaturated colours. (Mine et al. 2012.)
Figure 11. Snow White’s Scary Adventures before (a) and after (b) new AR projection was added in 2010 (Mine et al. 2012)
Tokyo’s Disneyland opened a projection-based AR attraction in the fall of 2012 called Goofy’s Paint ‘n’ Play House. The attraction is a room of blank furniture pieces that get colours and details added onto them using projection mapping technology (see section 3.2). Guests then use different light guns to “shoot paint”
onto the attraction, which slowly changes the appearance of the room by changing the details and colours being projected onto the furniture pieces depending on which area the light gun was pointed towards.
4 RESEARCH METHODS
To validate or invalidate the hypothesis written, a series of target group tests were conducted. In total there were four test sessions on different occasions with different groups and in total 31 individuals between the ages of 10-28 took part.
Two of the sessions were held with groups of young scouts in Oulu, the two others with groups of game design and business economics students at the XAMK campus in Kouvola. A few participants were a bit over the given age range, but as they were game design students, it was decided they could also take part as that they would be able to provide interesting and useful intel for the research. These sessions included a survey mixed with an interview (see section 4.1) and testing of mobile applications (see section 4.2).
4.1 Survey and interviews
The survey used was written and designed to research the target group’s gaming habits and interests, familiarity with augmented reality and their experiences and habits while queuing for rides at amusement parks or other similar locations (see appendix 1).
Every testing session started with the survey and interview part. Due to the age differences of the participants the approach was customized accordingly. In the first two sessions, in which the participants were between 10 and 18 years old the surveys and interviews were conducted in a group setting in order to keep the younger participants more engaged and talkative. The surveys were handed out to the group and each question was discussed verbally with the whole group.
This allowed for sharing experiences and thoughts among the group. In the two later sessions, in which the participants were between 20 and 28 years old, the process only differed in the fact that each participant went through the interview and survey individually with the author of this thesis. The questions were still gone over verbally in the individual sessions as well to allow for more detail than what would have been written.
4.2 AR application testing
The purpose of the mobile applications that were tested was to familiarize the testers with augmented reality technology and how it could be used. An additional goal was to observe how intuitively the testers used the chosen applications.
When choosing the applications for the target group testing, the age range of the group was heavily taken into consideration. As most of the participants were going to be under the age of 16, the applications were mainly chosen with them in mind, since most 10-year-olds would not enjoy an application that is used for seeing how different furniture would fit into different spaces. The applications that were eventually chosen for this testing were Google Creative Lab’s Just A Line (2018) and Robust North’s Arilyn (2014). Google Creative Lab (2018) describes Just A Line on their website as follows: “-- an app for iOS and Android that lets you make simple drawings in augmented reality--”. Just A Line uses Google’s own AR building platform called ARCore, which utilizes motion tracking, environmental understanding and light estimation to integrate virtual content into the real world (Google no date). The application’s content is very simple but was chosen for its possibility for the participants to use their own creativity.
Arilyn is Robust North’s flagship application designed for creating AR experiences for mainly brand marketing. It is free to download for iOS and Android and features multiple different AR implementations from different companies. For this testing the Amos Rex AR implementation was chosen. Amos Rex is a modern art museum located in Helsinki, Finland and this AR implementation features an entire museum room created in a virtual space. It can be explored while staying stationary by dragging your fingers across the screen but also by physically walking around. This application was chosen for its exploration aspect.
After the survey and interview part of the session, each participant was asked to individually come and test the chosen applications. Due to time constraints the first group was only able to test the Just A Line application, but in the three other sessions everyone had time to test both applications. The purpose of testing these applications with the users was not only to show them what can be created with
augmented reality but also to see how intuitively they were able to work the applications and how enjoyable the two different approaches to augmented reality were for them.
4.3 Findings
The questionnaire was answered by 31 participants in total. The gender divide was as follows: 16 male, 12 female and three other/did not want to answer, and the age divide was as follows: 21 10-14-year-olds, three 15-20-year-olds and seven 21-28-year olds.
One of the main goals of the questionnaire was to research the target audience’s gaming habits, specifically what kind of games they tend to play. Out of the 31 participants three said that they do not play mobile or video games, all three were in the 15-20 age group. As a result of this in figure 14 the purple bar indicating this age group is absent. From the remaining 29 participants answers given to question four, the different games were roughly divided under the six main gaming motivators based on their genre. The author’s own knowledge and estimation of the games was used to do this. Most participants answered the question with two or more games; therefore, the following graphs (figures 12 and 13) contain more than 29 answers in total.
Figure 12. Main motivators based on gaming habits divided by gender
Figure 13. Main motivators based on gaming habits divided by age
As seen in figures 12 and 13, the two leading motivators across the graphs are creativity, which includes design and discovery, and social, which includes
competition and community. When looking at the gender-dived data in figure 13, part of Quantic Foundry’s research findings (see section 2.2) are backed up, seeing as most males answered to be playing more social motivator game.
Surprisingly in these results, the highest-ranking motivator among females is creativity, unlike in the earlier research in which it was shown to be completion, which groups up under achievement. The same can be observed in the age- divided data. While social still ranks high, it is overtaken by creativity here as well.
When looking at the answers given, the most popular game in the creative category was Minecraft, closely followed by Sims 4.
In questions five and six of the questionnaire, participants were asked to tell if they play games or use mobile applications that use AR to research their familiarity with the technology. The answers on this question were almost perfectly divided, with 17 participants answering they do and 14 answering they do not. The group that was least familiar with AR was the group of business economics students. As expected, most participants answered to be playing Pokemon GO, with a few participants also mentioning Minecraft Earth.
Surprisingly some older participants also answered this with Instagram.
Instagram’s face filters are also AR and noticing that some participants realized that was a positive surprise to the author. When further asked about the AR functionality of Pokemon GO, all participants agreed that they do not have it turned on when playing. Most explained it to be because it either uses too much of the phone’s battery life or that it does not have enough of an incentive to use it constantly. Some of the older participants referred to it as more of a novelty, that was fun in the beginning but is now only turned on for taking funny pictures occasionally.
The last two questions of the questionnaire were related to amusement parks.
Participants were asked whether they had visited an amusement park and what they do if they must queue for rides for a long time. If they did not have previous experience of having to queue for long times, they were encouraged to imagine what they would think they would do in such a situation. They were given some answer options but also had space to add their own answers. The purpose of the
last question of the questionnaire was to see whether the participants were already on their phones while queueing. If this was the case, integrating a mobile application into the situations would be easy. All participants answered that they had been to an amusement park before and out of the 31 participants 13
answered that they would be on their phone while queueing.
The AR app testing showed that younger participants and the game design students received the technology and the applications themselves very fast and easy. Most of them seemed to be at least somewhat familiar with the technology beforehand and testing it out seemed very exciting for most of them. Especially the youngest participants could have stayed drawing with the Just A Line
application for much longer than there was time to. Exploring the museum setup in Arilyn was also interesting for these groups and kept them engaged for some time. The business economics students on the other hand were largely unfamiliar with the AR technology, and most of them had had little to no exposure to it in the past. When testing out the applications, they learned the purpose of it very
quickly, but also did not play or explore them for very long. Most of them said that since the chosen applications did not have any actual point or goal to them, there was not much for them to get enjoyment out of.
When introduced to the game application concept after both the survey and app testing was done, especially the younger participants were enthusiastic about the idea. The youngest group consisting of 10-year-olds found the idea very exciting purely on the game’s sake and seemed very excited about this new concept. In the group of 12-16-year-olds the idea was also received with high enthusiasm, but this group was already clearly more interested in the actual contents, the functionality and the execution in practice compared to the younger group. This group also initiated a conversation about whether one would be able to receive any feasible rewards from playing that could be used within the park. All the younger (under 18-year-old) participants showed interest in downloading the application were one available to them.
With the older groups of 18-28-year-old participants all agreed that the game concept itself was very interesting. Some mentioned that it will probably be very exciting and fun for younger visitors. In this age group though the majority was not sure if they would download the application for themselves if it did not offer feasible rewards to them that they could use within the park. Some said they would download it at least to try it out, especially if they were in a situation where they had to stand in queue for a long time.
4.4 Personas
Personas are used in user experience design to organize gathered used data and understand the user needs further. Personas provide a clearer picture on how the users behave and think as well as what they hope to achieve and why.
Personas are not real people but constructed from the behaviours and patterns observed from real users in the research phase of a project. The use of personas enables designers to justify their design choices. (Cooper et al. 2007.)
For a persona model to be as effective as possible, the specific needs of specific individuals must be taken into consideration. Making the product’s functionality to be too broad in hopes of satisfying as many customers as possible will likely intrude on the enjoyment of the product for most users. At its best, good
personas are modelled after the users whose needs represent the needs of the largest audience the best. These personas are then prioritized in a way that the most important users are satisfied without compromising the needs of the secondary users. (Cooper et al. 2007).
Based on the data collected from the testing sessions the following two personas were created. HubSpot’s Make My Persona template was used for the
visualization. As seen in figure 14, persona A is a 12-year-old male named Ville who is coming to the park with his family to spend the day during a family
vacation. He has a wristband that allows him to ride any rides he is tall enough for as many times as he would like. Ville also has the AR application already downloaded onto his smartphone, since his father noticed an advertisement for it on the website when he was purchasing the tickets.
Figure 14. Persona A, Visitor Ville
His goals for the visit are to have fun with his family and to ride all of the wildest rides with his father since he is finally tall enough for them. He is most excited about riding Taiga and Kingi but his frustrations include the fact that he has heard the queuing times for Taiga especially can be very long. In terms of gaming motivations, he has a very high social score and likes competitive play, both with and against his friends.
As seen in figure 15, persona B is a 23-year-old female named Vilma, who is a local from the Helsinki area. She is coming to the park to spend a day off with her friends to a different place than the city center for a change. She has a season pass to the park which she received as a gift. Vilma has also decided to treat herself during the visit and use a little more of her student budget than usual for a
meal at her favorite restaurant in the park. She has not heard of the AR application prior to her visit.
Figure 15. Persona B, Visitor Vilma
Her goals are to enjoy the day, get some nice food and ride her favorite rides which include the Puuvuoristorata and Salama. She is motivated by a change of everyday life and environment but frustrated at the prices at the park’s
restaurants. Her highest-ranking gaming motivation is creativity. She does not play much usually, but when she does it is something creative and casual.
5 AR CONCEPT FOR LINNANMÄKI
In order to make the research concrete a product concept was constructed. The product concept consists of gameplay concepts designed in a co-creation workshop together with target audience members (sections 5.1-5.2) and user
journey maps constructed from all the gathered research and creation data (section 5.3).
5.1 Co-creation workshop
For the co-creation workshop four target audience members were chosen to participate. The participants were between 20 and 28 years old and all studied game design. The reason for choosing other game design students to participate in this workshop was their understanding of the game design environment, player motivations and augmented reality as a technology. This way the workshop would result in feasible product concepts already. Due to Covid-19 the workshop was conducted over a Discord group call with each participant working from their own home. Group planning activities during the workshop were implemented through a shared Google Jamboard.
The participants were first instructed to watch a short YouTube video about different AR games and applications that are available currently (Macworld 2019) to re-familiarise them with the subject and the possibilities of the technology. The video was chosen for the variety of AR uses it showcased.
After the participants had finished watching the video, the link to the Google Jamboard was shared with everyone. The Jamboard consisted of three slides, each containing several photographs taken from the queuing areas of three different rides currently found at Linnanmäki. The rides chosen were Taiga, Salama and Kingi. The rides were chosen based on the information received from Linnanmäki; the chosen rides are some of the most popular and would be suitable places for the games to start with according to them. The participants were introduced to each ride and its themes and then an open conversation was established in which the participants were encouraged to create game ideas they themselves would find interesting at the showcased locations. While the ideas were discussed in detail, basic notes were added to the Jamboard slides to keep track of everything and later were organized to a cohesive order on the board.
5.2 Workshop findings
The participants were very enthusiastic about producing ideas based on the clear themes each ride presented already has and were very precise about keeping the game ideas integrated into these perceived themes.
For the rollercoaster Taiga (figure 16), the participants’ attention was immediately on the theme of the first part of the queuing area, which was perceived to be wild west inspired. From this theme immediately rose the idea of a shooting range, with targets and bottles popping out of the scenery and the queuing stall area. It was proposed to have a leader board appear at the end of the queuing area to show the points and ranking of the players. It was also highlighted that this kind of a base game mechanic could easily be modified according to a theme to change it up every so often. Some ideas that were generated were shooting down pests, for an environmental protection theme, and shooting food into the mouths of baby birds, themed to the bird’s nest theme of the attraction.
Figure 16. Taiga queue workshop ideas
Some other ideas for this ride were a hide-and-seek inspired game where you would need to find a certain amount of a specified item, like bird feathers or baby
birds. The bird footprints on the floor were also pointed out, as an idea was mentioned that the footprints could be followed to reach a hidden reward. One of the most important points the participants stressed multiple times when
discussing this ride was to make sure the game and attraction itself have a clear theme and both work off of each other. An idea was formed to have a mascot character, such as a big bird, designed for the ride, and when viewing the park area in AR, visitors would be able to see the bird flying around in the distance, around the ride. This would spark intrigue in guests around the park to come and see what it is.
When discussing the Kingi queuing area (figure 17), the first idea linked to the medieval theme of the ride was a game where the player would be a knight who slays dragons. After some more discussion an idea of a multiplayer game was proposed. Specifically, the idea was to include a Pokemon GO raid inspired fight sequence, where multiple players in the queue would team up together to slay one huge dragon. This would engage players who are mainly motivated from shared gaming experiences. The importance of making sure this could be played alone as well if wanted was mentioned multiple times.
Figure 17. Kingi queue workshop ideas
After some research into leisure games from medieval times, another idea presented was a game of horseshoes. Essentially like ring toss, horseshoes would be thrown at pegs placed at different distances from the player. The player would have to adjust their own tossing force accordingly to reach every one of them. It could be executed in a similar way to the Pokemon catching mechanic in Pokemon GO.
The third idea was pitched from Linnanmäki and was discussed with the
participants after the game ideas. The idea was to have an AR character posing next to the wooden throne outside of the queuing area that visitors could take pictures with. The workshop participants liked this idea and added to this that a humanoid animal mascot would probably be the best choice for the design. Some character types that were brought up were: king, queen, prince, princess, knight and jester. The character would make funny poses and faces around the throne and visitors could pose for pictures with it.
For the Salama queuing area (figure 18), the participants agreed it could be less gamified and more of an experience-based location. Since the queue features boards that tell parts of the Kalevala story, the participants thought that the AR could simply bring the pictures in the frames to life and have them move slightly.
They agreed this would not need too much extra, since the atmosphere is very calm and adding a game in there would dissolve that. The queuing area for Salama is also not very long, so putting a game into the area would not be necessary. Some more experience-based ideas that were suggested for Salama were a puzzle in a 3D space, where the player would need to put together the Sampo from the Kalevala tales, a playable kantele or just some characters moving around in that space.
Figure 18. Salama queue workshop ideas
Overall the main takeaway from this co-creation workshop was that the participants felt the most important thing was to create a game around the themes of the rides themselves. Other important points were to consider the queueing area’s overall length and design in the process of designing the game and the addition of the possibility of in-park rewards from playing the games.
5.3 User journey maps
For the final product two user journey maps were constructed, one for each of the personas produced in section 4.4. The thumbnails of the journey maps can be found as figures between the text, the full versions can be found in appendices 2 and 3 at the end of the thesis. The maps were created using the UXPressia template.
Customer journey mapping is the process of analysing and perceiving your user or customer’s entire journey and experiences with your product service. The final product is a map which showcases the important touchpoints that the user has with the product or service throughout the entire experience. It helps designers and developers to understand the customer’s experience with the product,
empathise with their customer group and define possible problem points in the product’s user experience. (Qualaroo no date.)
Visitor Ville’s user journey map (figure 19) begins from before arrives at the park, since he downloads the application at home already. At home he will try and see what the application contains but will not be able to enter without scanning his ticket, which he does not possess yet. An opportunity arises here to have the application include some out-of-park features like minigames that can be played to buildup excitement in visitors prior to the park visit.
Figure 19. User journey map for persona A, Visitor Ville
When Ville arrives at the park, he is excited to ride Taiga straight away, but notices that the queue is already very long. His father then reminds him of the application and they set it up together and join the queue. Another opportunity for the application development here would be to have the application send a push notification to the phone when the application is already downloaded. This notification could be sent when close to an attraction that has a game or other feature. In the queue, Ville opens the app and finds the target shooting game and together with his father plays it throughout the queue. At the end of the queue, Ville is excited to see he scored enough points to get him onto the leaderboard.
After Taiga, Ville is excited to see what other rides the park has, and which ones have games as well. Together with the family they explore the park, play the
games and ride the rides. Next to Kingi they notice it has a picture taking area at the entrance, so they decide to take some funny photos with the family. After the day at the park Ville shares some of the pictures and stories with his friends and encourages them to also download the application when they are visiting and challenges them to try and beat his scores if they do.
Visitor Vilma’s journey map (figure 20) begins when she arrives at the park with her friends. She is excited to spend the day there, but she has not heard of the new application before arrival. As a season pass holder, there is an opportunity of creating a way of notifying her and others about the new app.
While she and her friends are approaching Salama, she notices an advertisement for the new application. Curious about a new addition to the park she downloads it. In the queue area for Salama, she opens the game and plays the Sampo 3D puzzle with her friends and has a lot of fun. As she is not previously familiar with AR technology, this is very exciting for her. After she finishes playing, a
notification pops up telling her that playing more games in the park will earn her a reward. Excited and intrigued by both the new technology and the prospect of a reward she continues looking for more games around the park after riding Salama.
Figure 20. User journey map for persona B, Visitor Vilma
Nearing Kingi she notices it has a multiplayer game, so she encourages her friends to download the app as well and join her in the game. Together they beat the challenge and afterwards the application tells her she has collected enough
points to redeem a reward. Scrolling through the rewards list she finds one of them to be a small discount to the restaurant she was planning to eat at. While enjoying her meal, she shares some pictures of it and the day overall to her social media and hypes up the new application, encouraging everyone visiting o try it out.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The purpose of this thesis was to research whether an augmented reality game application would be able to bring added value to the customers visiting the amusement park Linnanmäki in Helsinki, Finland. Due to the resource and time limitations on this thesis project, no feasible prototype testing in the actual environment could be implemented. Even so, based on the research done into the target audience through surveys and interviews it can be stated that they feel that an application like this would bring them added value into the experience and motivate them to queue for the more popular rides.
The possibilities of AR use in an amusement park environment are endless, and big parks such as Disneyworld have mainly worked with it to add more to the ride experience themselves and not their queuing applications that are in use. As Mark Plogstedt writes in his article in Venturebeats (2018), these parks already own enormous, controlled lands in which they can push the technology and the stories told through it further.
Examining the findings of the research conducted with the target audience, some key characteristics for a successful application design can be identified. Most important for the older target audience members was to be able to receive rewards from the game that could be utilized within the park, such as discount coupons. Younger target audience members were more interested in the games themselves and excited about the themes surrounding the rides and how they would be implemented into the games made. The co-creation workshop
conducted with target audience members produced multiple feasible game ideas that could be implemented into the application if the decision is made to continue development on it.
The results of the target audience research conducted partially supported earlier research findings. While Quantic Foundry’s data on male gamers’ habits is supported through this research, other findings differ slightly. The overall age- divided data as well as the data on female gamers varied from the previous findings. Although this can also relate to the small participant group size
compared to previous research (31 vs 400.000 and counting) it is still important to recognize this difference.
Since this thesis was not able to cover the entire design process of this application, a short future development plan will be included here, in case the project is taken further. As mentioned at the beginning, this thesis has been following the goal-oriented design process model from About Face 3 (Cooper et al. 2007). The thesis has covered the design model’s beginning phases up until the design framework itself. The next step for this application would be to move on to the detailed design phase. In this phase the objective would be to more clearly define appearances and interfaces as well as design the interactions and behaviors inside of the application. After this a functioning prototype would be built that could be tested in the actual environment with target audience
members, figuring out the good and the bad with the application’s functionality early on. If the testing shows promise, the application can continue its way on the development pipeline into production and distribution.
In conclusion this thesis was able to answer the research question set at the beginning of the process, although further research and testing with a prototype in the actual environment will be required to give a definitive answer.
Nevertheless, this thesis is able to provide a foundation for a possible development project and the data collected can be utilized to make further decisions on the future of the project.
REFERENCES
ARCore overview. No Date. Google Developers. WWW document. Available at:
https://developers.google.com/ar/discover [Accessed 10 January 2020]
Arilyn. 2014. Arilyn Mobile application. Available at:
https://apps.apple.com/fi/app/arilyn/id885481443?l=fi [Accessed 10 January 2020]
Brockwell, H. 2016. The forgotten genius: the man who made a working VR machine in 1957. WWW document. Available at:
https://www.techradar.com/news/wearables/forgotten-genius-the-man-who- made-a-working-vr-machine-in-1957-1318253 [Accessed 24 February 2020].
Cooper, A., Reimann, R., Cronin, D. 2007. About Face 3 – The Essentials of Interaction Design. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing Inc.
Cosmos. The science behind the Pepper’s Ghost illusion. 2018. WWW document. Available at: https://cosmosmagazine.com/physics/the-science- behind-the-pepper-s-ghost-illusion [Accessed 24 February 2020].
digit. No date. Different types of augmented reality. WWW document. Available at: https://www.digit.in/technology-guides/fasttrack-to-augmented-reality/different- types-of-augmented-reality.html [Accessed 25 February 2020]
Google Creative Lab. 2018. Just A Line. WWW document. Available at:
https://experiments.withgoogle.com/justaline [Accessed 10 January 2020]
HubSpot. 2020. Make My Persona. WWW page. Available at:
https://www.hubspot.com/make-my-persona [Accessed 5 April 2020]
Just A Line. 2018. Google Creative Lab. Mobile application. Available at:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/just-a-line-draw-in-ar/id1367242427 [Accessed 10 January 2020]
Levski, Y. No date. Markerless vs. Marked Based Augmented Reality. WWW document. Available at: https://appreal-vr.com/blog/markerless-vs-marker-based- augmented-reality/ [Accessed 25 February 2020]
Macworld. 2019. The top 10 augmented reality apps for iphone. Video clip.
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuO31Ro2ypg [Accessed 26 March 2020]
Mine, M., Rose, D., Yang, B., van Baar, J. & Grundhöfer, A. 2012. Projection- based augmented reality in Disney theme parks. WWW document. Available at:
https://web.cs.wpi.edu/~gogo/courses/cs525A/papers/Mine_2012_ProjectionAR.p df [Accessed 4 February 2020]
Pesce, M. 2019. Augmented Reality – The Past, The Present and The Future.
WWW-document. Available at: https://www.interaction-
design.org/literature/article/augmented-reality-the-past-the-present-and-the-future [Accessed 24 February 2020]
Piekarsky, W., Thomas, B. 2002. ARQuake: The Outdoor Augmented Reality Gaming System. Communications of the ACM Vol 45 (No 1), 36-38. WWW- document. Available at: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/502269.502291 [accessed 26 March 2020]
Plogstedt, M., 2018. Augmented reality will bring together games and amusement parks. Venturebeat. WWW-document. Available at:
https://venturebeat.com/2018/06/09/augmented-reality-will-bring-together-games- and-amusement-parks/ [Accessed 26 February 2020]
Qualaroo. no date. The Ultimate Customer Journey Map Template (and Guide).
WWW document. Available at: https://qualaroo.com/customer-journey-map- template/ [Accessed 20 March 2020]
Quantic Foundry. 2016. 7 Things We Learned About Primary Gaming Motivations From Over 250,000 Gamers. WWW document. Available at:
https://quanticfoundry.com/2016/12/15/primary-motivations/ [Accessed 10 January 2020]
Yee, N. 2017. Competition Is Not The Opposite Of Community. Quantic Foudnry.
WWW-document. Available at:
https://quanticfoundry.com/2017/03/23/competition-not-opposite-community/
[Accessed 10 January 2020]
Ryznar, P. 2017. Projector-based augmented reality: a new form of enterprise AR. WWW document. Available at: https://lightguidesys.com/blog/projector- based-augmented-reality-new-form-enterprise-ar/ [Accessed 24 February 2020]
Schlecter, S. 2014. What is markerless Augmented Reality? Updated 4
December 2019. WWW document. Available at: [Accessed 25 February 2020]
ThinkMobiles. What is Augmented Reality (AR) and how does it work. No date.
WWW document. Available at: https://thinkmobiles.com/blog/what-is-augmented- reality/ [Accessed 24 February 2020]
UXPressia. 2020. WWW page. Available at: https://uxpressia.com/ [Accessed 6 April 2020]
White, G. 2018. Projected augmented reality. WWW document. Available at:
https://cantina.co/projected-augmented-reality/ [Accessed 24 February 2020]
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Gamer Motivation Model. Quantic Foundry. 2020. Available at:
https://quanticfoundry.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Gamer-Motivation- Model-Overview.pdf
Figure 2. Primary gaming motivations in the 13-25 age group. Quantic Foundry.
2017. Available at: https://quanticfoundry.com/2016/12/15/primary-motivations/
Figure 3. Pepper’s Ghost. Cosmos. 2018. Available at:
https://cosmosmagazine.com/physics/the-science-behind-the-pepper-s-ghost- illusion
Figure 4. Morton Heilig and his Sensorama. techradar. 2016. Available at:
https://www.techradar.com/news/wearables/forgotten-genius-the-man-who- made-a-working-vr-machine-in-1957-1318253
Figure 5. ARQuake game view and equipment for playing. Dutch Rose Media.
Available at: https://www.dutchrosemedia.com/augmented-reality- outdoor/arquake/
Figure 6. Projection mapping on the Façade of the Parliament in Romania.
Wacom. 2018. Available at: https://eu.shop.wacom.eu/wacom- infochannel/uncategorised/projection-mapping-building-a-story/
Figure 7. Marker-based AR. appreal-vr. Available at: https://appreal- vr.com/portfolio/
Figure 8. Markerless AR in Pokémon GO. iMore. 2017. Available at:
https://www.imore.com/best-places-use-ar-mode-pokemon-go
Figure 9. Superimposition-based AR. digit. Available at:
https://www.digit.in/technology-guides/fasttrack-to-augmented-reality/different- types-of-augmented-reality.html
Figure 10. The Haunted Mansion’s singing busts with and without projected AR.
2012. Mine, M., Rose. D, Yang, B., van Baar, J. & Grundhöfer, A. 2012. Available at:
https://web.cs.wpi.edu/~gogo/courses/cs525A/papers/Mine_2012_ProjectionAR.p df
Figure 11. Snow White’s Scary Adventures before (a) and after (b) new AR projection was added in 2010. 2012. Mine, M., Rose. D, Yang, B., van Baar, J. &
Grundhöfer, A. 2012. Available at:
https://web.cs.wpi.edu/~gogo/courses/cs525A/papers/Mine_2012_ProjectionAR.p df
Figure 12. Main motivators based on gaming habits divided by gender.
Figure 13. Main motivators based on gaming habits divided by age.
Figure 14. Persona A, Visitor Ville Figure 15. Persona B, Visitor Vilma Figure 16. Taiga queue workshop ideas Figure 17. Kingi queue workshop ideas Figure 18. Salama queue workshop ideas
Figure 19. User journey map for persona A, Visitor Ville Figure 20. User journey map for persona B, Visitor Vilma
Appendix 1/1
Appendix 1/2
Appendix 2/1
Appendix 2/2
Appendix 2/3
Appendix 3/1
Appendix 3/2
Appendix 3/3
