WP3

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WP3 Virtual Tourist Guide
Pilot Action The Citadel of Sighisoara Mior
itics Association
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Objectives of the virtual tour guide (as
previously defined) -- To offer visitors an
authentic and rich experience in visiting
Sighisoara, and to encourage them to want to know
more. -- To raise awareness/ consciousness among
the visitors as well as the local community
about how they are connected to (the history of)
this town. -- To show or highlight little known
points of interest, stories, or historical facts

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Period 31 July 18 August 2007 Users 36
people Problems many Experience we gained a
lot of The team Claudia, Simona, Voichita,
Iulian and Mihai
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The set up period


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• Virtual Tour Guide Sighisoara
• The Three Tours
• The Urban Development of the Town (the Biography
  of a Cosmopolitan Provincial Town)
• The People of Sighisoara (A walk through
  Sighisoaras stories)
• A Town under Threat

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The Trial
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• The Urban Development of the Town (the Biography
  of a Cosmopolitan Provincial Town)
• -- a circular tour, surrounding the citadel twice
• -- 15 points of interest
• -- connects places and buildings to particular
  historical periods and events, placing them in
  context
• -- concept highlighting the cosmopolitan
  character of Sighisoara, always at the crossroads
  of migration, conflict, and trade

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B. The People of Sighisoara (A walk through
Sighisoaras stories) -- starts in the Lower
Town, loops once through the citadel, and back to
the Lower Town -- 14 points of interest --
connects places and buildings (including
residential buildings) to categories of people
characteristic of Sighisoara. Examples of
representative, if less known, members of the
community are given -- concept to highlight the
diverse and rich social and professional life of
the town
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• A Town under Threat
• -- a shorter tour, starting from the citadel and
  descending all the way to the river
• -- 6 points of interest
• -- connecting places and views of the town to the
  main threats the towns has faced violence and
  conflict, fire, floods and disease, mass tourism,
  industrialization and the socialist/post-socialist
  period (including mass tourism and participation
  in a globalized economy)
• -- concept to highlight the fragility and the
  resilience of the World Heritage site, and to
  raise awareness about everybodys involvement in
  its faith

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• Nokia N80
• Active matrix color display
• (352x416, up to 262,144 colors)
• Up to 40 MB of internal dynamic
• memory for images, contacts, text
• messages, multimedia messages,
• ringing tones, video clips, calendar
• notes, to-do list and applications.
• - Expandable memory 128 MB miniSD card.
• Integrated 3 megapixel camera sensor
• (2048 x 1536 pixels) with up to 20 x digital
• zoom and close-up mode
• - Integrated digital music player

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• Sony Ericcson P990i
• Active matrix color display
• (240x320, up to 262,144 colors)
• - Memory Stick PRO Duo support
• - Phone memory 60MB
• Integrated 3 megapixel camera sensor
• (2048 x 1536 pixels)
• - Integrated digital music player

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• Features
• Multiple languages support
• Short descriptions
• Main stories
• Detailed information
• Inter-linked stories
• Audio presentations
• Navigation buttons (play, pause, back, forward)
• Send a postcard

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• User profiles
• age 20 55 years old
• familiarity with mobile phones
• familiarity with mobile Internet browsing
• interested for mobile phones games

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How does it work?
1. Choose your language
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2. Small intro about the tours.
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3. Choose your theme tour
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4. Choose stories
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5. And now have fun!
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(No Transcript)
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First step of evaluation Q / A
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Research Approach Methods Combination of --
observation -- 30 min to 1 hour follow-up
semi-structured interviews (all cases) Documented
through detailed notes Instructions prior to
self guided tours Compensation for time and
effort
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Research Approach Analysis and
Interpretation -- on going, starting with the
first interview -- centered around our initial
questions -- the advantages and disadvantages
of this particular device -- the advantages and
disadvantages of a context based approach --
the guides ability to generate locals stories,
and connect them to the guide/visitors -- but
sensitive to other patterns or themes that might
emerge Final report
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Research Approach (4) -- Interview Protocol
Questions/Prompts Instructions to the interviewer Results sought (by the end of the interview, we should know)
Intro Before we start, I just wanted to remind you that there are no right or wrong ways to use the tour or the device, and that your participation in this trial is extremely valuable in improving it. We are interested in your personal experience using this device to explore the Old Town of Sighisoara. Before we start, I just wanted to remind you that there are no right or wrong ways to use the tour or the device, and that your participation in this trial is extremely valuable in improving it. We are interested in your personal experience using this device to explore the Old Town of Sighisoara. Before we start, I just wanted to remind you that there are no right or wrong ways to use the tour or the device, and that your participation in this trial is extremely valuable in improving it. We are interested in your personal experience using this device to explore the Old Town of Sighisoara.
1. (2-5 min) How would you describe the tour to someone at home/close to you? ---What the general experience of the tour was ---How it compared to other kinds of tours
2. (2-5 min) What have you learnt about Sighisoara, how would you talk about it with someone at home/close to you? We are interested in the impact of the tour in terms of image and perception, depth of information, destabilizing previous caricature-like impressions of the town probe for both concrete pieces of information and broader descriptions More concretely ---what was learned (what pieces of information, overall understandings) ---what type of information was remembered
3. (up to 25 min) Now, I would like you to talk about the tour/tours you took. Please show me on the map the route you took/the entries you read, as well as you remember them. Describe the choices you made as well as how the information you received shaped your experience of the town. For locals, add the following prompts When was the last time you were in this place? Why? What else do you know about this place? Do you know some stories about it, things people did, things that happened to people, etc? Hand the research participant a new map and a list with all the points of interest/stations/tour entries Make sure you probe the user and cover the following ---Ease of physical navigation and connecting the physical points of interests to the text. ---Length of tour, how much time was spent in each station (or the ones they are more willing to talk about) ---Depth of informationwhen was the user more interested, when was she less interested? ---How choices were made about length of stay at each station, where to go next, how much information to read ---What other behaviors were connected to using the device? (Taking pictures, resting, looking out, writing notes, reading a second guide, interacting with other people, etc). ---the route, approximately how much time they spent, how much they read ---reasons for their choices ---how they connected the map, the physical route, and the virtual guide what were the difficulties, what solutions? ---when, how, why they took pictures, interacted with other people, took notes
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Research Approach (5) -- Interview Protocol,
contd
4. (15 min) How do feel about the device? How would you describe using it? What was easy about using it? What was difficult? What would you tell the person that created the tour and placed it on the device? Encourage the user to provide concrete examples, maybe showing them on the device. ---problems? What features were particularly useful, enjoyable? -- what do they prefer, text over audio? -- screen too little, small resolution -- buttons? -- navigation easy, intuitive, illogical? -- the options send picture, link, image, audio
5. (2-5 min or more) Do you own a cell phone? Have you used similar devices in a tourism context? This can be a follow up to the previous questionwe are trying to determine to what extent familiarity with the device/type of device influences the experience of the user. -- what type of phone? -- for how long? -- other ICT devices -- attitudes toward technology
6. (2-5 min) Demographics, etc. How old are you? Where do you come from? Gender What did you know about Sighisoara before coming here? What did you expect to see? For locals What other stories do you have about these places? Was there anything that surprised you? Was there a story that you would have told differently? -- age -- gender -- nationality -- native language -- relationship to Sighisoara, previous knowledge about Sighisoara, previous visits (if tourists), length of residence how often comes to the citadel and why
7. Closing, debriefing Thank the interviewee and answer any questions she might have Closing, debriefing Thank the interviewee and answer any questions she might have Closing, debriefing Thank the interviewee and answer any questions she might have
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Feedback a lot and very usefull
Conclusions in progress
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To be continued