(A) user-oriented design framework of narrative space for space-adaptive storytelling in wearable augmented reality environments

Abstract

This research proposes a user-oriented design framework of narrative space that enables space-adaptive storytelling for wearable Augmented Reality (AR) environments to provide consistently immersive user experiences anywhere, regardless of physical features specific to a space. For this purpose, it first presents two user studies investigating how traversability and visibility as factors of spatial affordance affect users playing Fragments, a space-adaptive AR detective game developed for the HoloLens, a Head Mounted Display (HMD), through the size, density, and layout of real indoor spaces. It further verifies commonalities found in the results and implications of the two studies by combining the experimental data (n=112) to compare how differences in affordance in terms of complexity impact narrative experience for five spatial structures in two contrasting size configurations. Based on the three-phase analysis, it establishes that moderate levels of traversability and visibility, met when a given space's complexity and size can offset negative effects of the other, are beneficial for narrative experience in wearable AR environments. Ultimately, it derives detailed principles for the design of augmented narrative spaces in space-adaptive AR storytelling that can be implemented at the system level to detect and compensate for the lack or excess of affordances in various real spaces and enhance user experiences therein.