{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,7]],"date-time":"2026-02-07T20:32:37Z","timestamp":1770496357535,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,5,31]],"date-time":"2023-05-31T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1685491200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["MTI"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Tourism on the island of Santa Maria, Azores, has been increasing due to its characteristics in terms of biodiversity and geodiversity. This island has several hiking trails; the available information can be consulted in pamphlets and physical placards, whose maintenance and updating is difficult and expensive. Thus, the need to improve the visitors\u2019 experience arises, in this case, by using the technological means currently available to everyone: a smartphone. This paper describes the development and evaluation of the user experience of a mobile application for guiding visitors on said hiking trails, as well as the design principles and main issues observed during this process. The application is based on an augmented reality interaction model providing visitors with an interactive and recreational experience through Augmented Reality in outdoor environments (without additional marks in the physical space and using georeferenced information), helping in navigation during the route and providing updated information with easy maintenance. For the design and evaluation of the application, two studies were carried out with users on-site (Santa Maria, Azores). The first had 77 participants, to analyze users and define the application\u2019s characteristics, and the second had 10 participants to evaluate the user experience. The feedback from participants was obtained through questionnaires. In these questionnaires, an average SUS (System Usability Scale) score of 83 (excellent) and positive results in the UEQ (User Experience Questionnaire) were obtained.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/mti7060058","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,1]],"date-time":"2023-06-01T02:39:47Z","timestamp":1685587187000},"page":"58","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["Development and Evaluation of a Mobile Application with Augmented Reality for Guiding Visitors on Hiking Trails"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"7","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0001-6695-7249","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rute","family":"Silva","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"ISEL\u2014Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa\/IPL, 1959-007 Lisbon, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1869-6491","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rui","family":"Jesus","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Lisbon School of Engineering (ISEL)\/IPL and NOVA LINCS, 1959-007 Lisbon, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1597-410X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pedro","family":"Jorge","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Lisbon School of Engineering (ISEL)\/IPL and NOVA LINCS, 1959-007 Lisbon, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,5,31]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Silva, R. (2022). Plataforma de Realidade Aumentada Para Dispositivos M\u00f3veis de Acompanhamento dos Percursos Pedestres da Ilha de Santa Maria, A\u00e7ores, MSC, Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"Miguens, A.P. (1996). Navega\u00e7\u00e3o: A Ci\u00eancia e a Arte, Diretoria de Hidrografia e Navega\u00e7\u00e3o."},{"key":"ref_3","first-page":"21","article-title":"Optimal Facility Location on Spherical Surfaces: Algorithm and Application","volume":"7","author":"Mwemezi","year":"2011","journal-title":"New York Sci. J."},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"(2022, September 15). Chris Veness: Calculate Distance, Bearing and More between Latitude\/Longitude Points. Available online: http:\/\/www.movable-type.co.uk\/scripts\/latlong.html."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"78","DOI":"10.15406\/mojce.2019.05.00159","article-title":"Direct Bearing Angles Determination on Globe","volume":"5","author":"Bektas","year":"2019","journal-title":"MOJ Civil Eng."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hofmann-Wellenhof, B., Legat, K., and Wieser, M. (2003). Navigation: Principles of Positioning and Guidance, Springer Science & Business Media.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-7091-6078-7"},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Tallon, L. (2008). Digital Technologies and the Museum Experience: Handheld Guides and Other Media, AltaMira Press. Introduction: Mobile, Digital and Personal."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"705","DOI":"10.1007\/s10796-016-9666-6","article-title":"A review of audio guides in the era of smart tourism","volume":"19","author":"Lee","year":"2017","journal-title":"Inf. Syst. Front."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"71","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pmcj.2014.08.009","article-title":"Tourists responses to mobile augmented reality travel guides: The role of emotions on adoption behavior","volume":"18","author":"Kourouthanassis","year":"2014","journal-title":"Pervasive Mob. Comput."},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"Kramer, R., Modsching, M., ten Hagen, K., and Gretzel, U. (2007). Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism, Springer."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"401","DOI":"10.1177\/1096348013491596","article-title":"Traveler Acceptance of an App-Based Mobile Tour Guide","volume":"39","author":"Lai","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Hosp. Tour. Res."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"414","DOI":"10.1177\/14673584211055819","article-title":"A critical evaluation of mobile guided tour apps: Motivators and inhibitors for tour guides and customers","volume":"22","author":"Podsukhina","year":"2022","journal-title":"Tour. Hosp. Res."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"629","DOI":"10.1016\/j.sbspro.2013.10.282","article-title":"Measuring the Usability of a Smartphone Delivered Museum Guide","volume":"97","author":"Othman","year":"2013","journal-title":"Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci."},{"key":"ref_14","unstructured":"Larga, F.E.S.V. (2022, September 15). A Mobile Tour Guide App for Sustainable Tourism. Available online: http:\/\/hdl.handle.net\/10071\/22033."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jesus, R., Dias, R., Frias, R., Abrantes, A., and Correia, N. (2008, January 28\u201330). Memoria mobile: Sharing pictures of a point of interest. Proceedings of the Workshop on Advanced Visual Interfaces AVI: 412\u2013415, Napoli, Italy.","DOI":"10.1145\/1385569.1385647"},{"key":"ref_16","unstructured":"Correia, N., Alves, L., Correia, H., Romero, L., Morgado, C., Soares, L., Cunha, J., Rom\u00e3o, T., Dias, A.E., and Jorge, A. (2005, January 15\u201317). InStory: A System for Mobile Information Access Storytelling and Gaming Activities in Physical Spaces. ACE-05 Proceedings of the 2005 ACM SIGCHI International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology, Valencia, Spain."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"680","DOI":"10.1080\/1743873X.2020.1741594","article-title":"A location-aware app to support the heritage trail experience in Singapore","volume":"15","author":"Yew","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. Herit. Tour."},{"key":"ref_18","first-page":"1321","article-title":"A Taxonomy of Mixed Reality Visual Displays","volume":"77","author":"Milgram","year":"1994","journal-title":"IEICE Trans. Inf. Syst."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"355","DOI":"10.1162\/pres.1997.6.4.355","article-title":"A survey of augmented reality","volume":"6","author":"Azuma","year":"1997","journal-title":"Presence Teleoperators Virtual Environ."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Peddie, J. (2017). Augmented Reality: Where We Will all Live, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-54502-8"},{"key":"ref_21","unstructured":"Papagiannis, H. (2017). Augmented Human: How Technology is Shaping the New Reality, O\u2019Reilly Media, Inc."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Schmalstieg, D., and Hollerer, T. (2016). Augmented Reality: Principles and Practice, Addison-Wesley Professional.","DOI":"10.1145\/2897826.2927365"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Olsson, T., and Salo, M. (2011, January 26\u201329). Online user survey on current mobile augmented reality applications. Proceedings of the 10th IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, ISMAR, Basel, Switzerland.","DOI":"10.1109\/ISMAR.2011.6092372"},{"key":"ref_24","first-page":"571","article-title":"Analysing recent augmented and virtual reality developments in tourism","volume":"10","author":"Moro","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. Hosp. Tour. Technol."},{"key":"ref_25","unstructured":"Fritz, F., Susperregui, A., and Linaza, M.T. (2005, January 8\u201311). Enhancing cultural tourism experiences with augmented reality technologies. Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage VAST, Pisa, Italy."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"10","DOI":"10.5772\/51644","article-title":"Enhancing the tourism experience through mobile augmented reality: Challenges and prospects","volume":"4","author":"Kounavis","year":"2012","journal-title":"Int. J. Eng. Bus. Manag."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"157","DOI":"10.7906\/indecs.15.2.5","article-title":"Augmented reality in tourism\u2013research and applications overview","volume":"15","year":"2017","journal-title":"Interdiscip. Descr. Complex Syst. Indecs"},{"key":"ref_28","first-page":"55","article-title":"Mobile augmented reality (MAR) game as a travel guide: Insights from Pok\u00e9mon GO","volume":"8","author":"Aluri","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. Hosp. Tour. Technol."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"873","DOI":"10.1007\/s00779-020-01366-7","article-title":"Enhancing cultural heritage outdoor experience with augmented-reality smart glasses","volume":"24","author":"Litvak","year":"2020","journal-title":"Pers. Ubiquitous Comput."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Grammatikopoulou, A., and Grammalidis, N. (2023). Artful\u2014An AR Social Self-Guided Tour App for Cultural Learning in Museum Settings. Information, 14.","DOI":"10.3390\/info14030158"},{"key":"ref_31","unstructured":"Han, D., Weber-Sabil, J., Bastiaansen, M., Mitas, O., and Lub, X. (2019). Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality: The Power of AR and VR for Business, Springer."},{"key":"ref_32","unstructured":"Williams, M., Yao, K., and Nurse, J. (2020). Developing an Augmented Reality Tourism App through User-Centred Design (Extended Version). arXiv."},{"key":"ref_33","unstructured":"Bainbridge, W. (2004). Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction, Sage Publications."},{"key":"ref_34","unstructured":"(2022, September 15). SmartGuide. Available online: https:\/\/www.smart-guide.org\/."},{"key":"ref_35","unstructured":"(2022, September 15). PocketGuides. Available online: https:\/\/pocketsights.com\/."},{"key":"ref_36","unstructured":"(2022, September 15). AR Trails. Available online: https:\/\/artrails.app\/."},{"key":"ref_37","unstructured":"Google Trends (2022, September 29). Interest Over Time in Web Search (Flutter vs. React Native vs Ionic). Available online: https:\/\/trends.google.com\/trends\/explore?date=2018-01-01%202022-09-29&q=%2Fg%2F11f03_rzbg,%2Fg%2F11h03gfxy9,%2Fg%2F1q6l_n0n0."},{"key":"ref_38","unstructured":"JetBrains (2022, September 29). Cross-Platform Mobile Frameworks Used by Software Developers Worldwide from 2019 to 2021. Available online: https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/869224\/worldwide-software-developer-working-hours\/."},{"key":"ref_39","unstructured":"Mota, D.L. (2020). Estudo Comparativo de Frameworks Multiplataforma de Desenvolvimento de Aplica\u00e7\u00f5es m\u00f3Veis, Disserta\u00e7\u00e3o de mestrado, Polit\u00e9cnico de Leiria."},{"key":"ref_40","first-page":"4","article-title":"SUS-A quick and dirty usability scale","volume":"189","author":"Brooke","year":"1996","journal-title":"Usability Eval. Ind."},{"key":"ref_41","unstructured":"Laugwitz, B., Held, T., and Schrepp, M. (2008, January 20\u201321). Construction and Evaluation of a User Experience Questionnaire. Proceedings of the HCI and Usability for Education and Work: 4th Symposium of the Workgroup Human-Computer Interaction and Usability Engineering of the Austrian Computer Society, USAB 2008, Graz, Austria."},{"key":"ref_42","first-page":"114","article-title":"Determining What Individual SUS Scores Mean: Adding an Adjective Rating Scale","volume":"4","author":"Bangor","year":"2009","journal-title":"J. Usability Stud."},{"key":"ref_43","unstructured":"(2022, January 09). UEQ\u2014User Experience Questionnaire: Download Data Analysis Tools. Available online: https:\/\/www.ueq-online.org\/."}],"container-title":["Multimodal Technologies and Interaction"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2414-4088\/7\/6\/58\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T19:46:36Z","timestamp":1760125596000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2414-4088\/7\/6\/58"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,5,31]]},"references-count":43,"journal-issue":{"issue":"6","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,6]]}},"alternative-id":["mti7060058"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mti7060058","relation":{},"ISSN":["2414-4088"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2414-4088","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,5,31]]}}}