RESEARCH REPORT:

Public evaluation of a handheld locative trail guide created by the ART Mobile Lab

A first-of-its-kind research report evaluating audience preferences and receptivity to mobile media interactive experiences in Banff National Park. Completed in March 2008.

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Background to the Research

Parks Canada is currently looking at ways to improve and enhance visitor experience at National Parks, National Historic Sites and National Marine Conservation areas through the use of new media. One technology that has been identified as having potential to further these goals is locative media. At present, outdoor use of locative media is limited, with only a handful of sites and parks in the United States and Europe making use of locative devices, and none in Canada. Research about user acceptance, learning and preferences is non-existent in the Canadian setting, and has been a limiting factor in development of a locative media strategy for Parks Canada.

In 2006, the ART Mobile Lab at the Banff New Media Institute (BNMI) developed the Tracklines prototype, a handheld location-based guided experience for the Hoodoo Trail at Banff National Park. The prototype is a smart phone loaded with multimedia stories related to locations on the Hoodoo Trail that are triggered by GPS. One layer of locative content for this prototype was co-authored in collaboration with Banff National Park (BNP). The result was a guided interpretive hiking tour collecting six stories about local geoscience under the title Geology: A Walk Through Time.

The ART Mobile Lab and the Public Information and Education Branch of Parks Canada have shared many questions about the potential of handheld location-based technologies for use in outdoor settings. In particular, both organizations wanted to evaluate the effectiveness of handheld location-based content and devices for delivering interpretive content in remote Park environments. The ART Mobile Lab was therefore contracted by Parks Canada to undertake a program of research during the Summer/Fall of 2007, in order to conduct such an evaluation based on audience response to the Tracklines prototype.

A program of survey research and field trials took place between August 1 and September 30, 2007. The output of this research is summarized in the report entitled Public evaluation of a handheld locative trail guide created by the ART Mobile Lab for Banff National Park, completed in March 2008. This document has now been released and made available to the public via the Library and Archives Canada web site.

The aim of this study was to define and describe the current target audience for mobile/locative interpretive experiences in Banff National Park, based on a User Receptivity Survey (URS). The research also evaluated user preferences for handheld location-based content and services on Banff trails based on a Public Field Trial Evaluation of Tracklines (PFTE).

This study is probably the first of its kind in Canada, and the results of this research will help to further the work of Parks Canada towards developing a locative technology strategy that will be applied across the National Parks system.