Investigating Mobile Technology for Experiential Outdoor Heritage Practices

This thesis investigates the potential of innovative mobile guides to enhance heritage experiences during walks in historic urban precincts. Focusing on the effects of smartphone-based and mobile projector-based guides, the research explores how different display modalities influence visitors' embodied and social engagement, behaviour, and meaning-making processes in complex, multi-sensory heritage environments. Through a series of empirical studies conducted in Canterbury's historic high street, involving 66 participants, the research employs a multi-method approach including surveys, interviews, observations, and participant-generated materials. The findings reveal that while smartphone guides often create a 'bubble' effect, isolating users from their surroundings, mobile projector guides foster more exploratory, playful, and socially engaged interactions with the heritage site. The thesis proposes a novel approach to designing mobile guides through the lens of 'playful walking', emphasizing the importance of supporting not only cognitive engagement but also multi-sensory, embodied, and social interactions. This approach is synthesized into actionable design considerations and four innovative design directions, illustrated with conceptual examples. Key contributions include technology design, empirical observations on the affordances of different mobile guide types, and a set of design principles for creating devices that support embodied heritage interpretation practices. The research highlights the potential of mobile projector guides to transform static heritage sites into dynamic spaces for interaction, fostering deeper connections between visitors and their surroundings. While primarily focused on historic urban precincts, the findings offer broader implications for designing mobile guides that enhance heritage experiences in contexts such as archaeological sites, living history museums, etc.