Abstract
The paper investigates the design of virtual guide characters in the context of remote tourism, focusing on their appearance, characteristics, and effects on the user experience. We created four virtual guide characters for an Arctic tourism context and evaluated them with 15 participants with a design background. In addition, the participants created their own virtual guide character designs by sketching and writing descriptions. The salient findings highlight e.g. that in the virtual guide’s design, the personality, local features, and historical authenticity matter for the user experience. However, local stereotypes provoke mixed feelings depending on the audience, and the diverse aspects of design should be paid attention to. The work contributes towards designing remote and more sustainable tourism experiences in the future.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abate, A.F., Acampora, G., Ricciardi, S.: An interactive virtual guide for the AR based visit of archaeological sites. J. Vis. Lang. Comput. 22(6), 415–425 (2011)
Adams, E.: Fundamentals of Game Design, pp. 181–204. New Riders, New York, US (2014)
Bates, J., et al.: The role of emotion in believable agents. Commun. ACM 37(7), 122–125 (1994)
Charmaz, K.: Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks (2006)
Egri, L.: The Art of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives. Simon and Schuster (1972)
Elshan, E., Zierau, N., Engel, C., Janson, A., Leimeister, J.M.: Understanding the design elements affecting user acceptance of intelligent agents: past, present and future. Inf. Syst. Front. 1–32 (2022)
Haake, M., Gulz, A.: Visual stereotypes and virtual pedagogical agents. J. Educ. Technol. Soc. 11(4), 1–15 (2008)
Hassenzahl, M.: User experience (UX) towards an experiential perspective on product quality. In: Proceedings of the 20th Conference on l’Interaction Homme-Machine, pp. 11–15 (2008)
Hassenzahl, M., Tractinsky, N.: User experience-a research agenda. Behav. Inf. Technol. 25(2), 91–97 (2006)
Hautala-Hirvioja, T.: Maija kellokumpu: lappilaisen naistaiteilijan mahdollisuudet ja rajat 1920-ja 1930-luvulla. In: Tavallisen epätavallisia naisia: historian naisten elämänvalintoja pohjoisessa, pp. 65–83. Lapland University Press, Rovaniemi (2013)
Karhu, M., Suoheimo, M., Häkkilä, J.: People’s perspectives on social media use during COVID-19 pandemic. In: MUM 2021: 20th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia, pp. 1–13. Association for Computing Machinery, New York (2021)
Karuzaki, E., et al.: Realistic virtual humans for cultural heritage applications. Heritage 4(4), 4148–4171 (2021)
Kugapi, O.: “Se on sydämen asia se saamenkäsityö": matkailun vaikutukset saamelaiseen käsityökulttuuriin ja kulttuuri-identiteettiin. Master’s thesis, University of Lapland (2014)
Lankoski, P., Heliö, S., Ekman, I.: Characters in computer games: toward understanding interpretation and design. In: DiGRA Conference (2003)
Luiro, E., Hannula, P., Launne, E., Mustonen, S., Westerlund, T., Häkkilä, J.: Exploring local history and cultural heritage through a mobile game. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia, pp. 1–4 (2019)
Machidon, O.M., Duguleana, M., Carrozzino, M.: Virtual humans in cultural heritage ICT applications: a review. J. Cult. Heritage 33, 249–260 (2018)
Maldonado, H., Hayes-Roth, B.: Toward cross-cultural believability in character design. In: Agent Culture: Human-Agent Interaction in a Multicultural World, pp. 143–175. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New Jersey (2004)
Murali, P., Shamekhi, A., Parmar, D., Bickmore, T.: Argumentation is more important than appearance for designing culturally tailored virtual agents. In: Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems, pp. 1940–1942. International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, Richland (2020)
Naumann, L.P., Vazire, S., Rentfrow, P.J., Gosling, S.D.: Personality judgments based on physical appearance. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 35(12), 1661–1671 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167209346309, https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167209346309. pMID: 19762717
Peña, J., Yoo, S.C.: Under pressure: avatar appearance and cognitive load effects on attitudes, trustworthiness, bidding, and interpersonal distance in a virtual store. Presence 23(1), 18–32 (2014)
Roto, V.: User experience building blocks. In: The 2nd cost294-mause international open Workshop, vol. 14 (2006)
Rzayev, R., Karaman, G., Henze, N., Schwind, V.: Fostering virtual guide in exhibitions. In: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services, pp. 1–6. Association for Computing Machinery, New York (2019)
Samaroudi, M., Echavarria, K.R., Perry, L.: Heritage in lockdown: digital provision of memory institutions in the UK and us of America during the COVID-19 pandemic. Museum Manage. Curatorsh. 35(4), 337–361 (2020)
Sloan, R.: Virtual Character Design. Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton (2015)
Swartout, W., et al.: Ada and grace: toward realistic and engaging virtual museum guides. In: Allbeck, J., Badler, N., Bickmore, T., Pelachaud, C., Safonova, A. (eds.) IVA 2010. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 6356, pp. 286–300. Springer, Heidelberg (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15892-6_30
Sylaiou, S., Kasapakis, V., Gavalas, D., Dzardanova, E.: Avatars as storytellers: affective narratives in virtual museums. Pers. Ubiquit. Comput. 24(6), 829–841 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-019-01358-2
Tinwell, A., Grimshaw, M., Nabi, D.A., Williams, A.: Facial expression of emotion and perception of the uncanny valley in virtual characters. Comput. Hum. Behav. 27(2), 741–749 (2011)
Veletsianos, G.: Contextually relevant pedagogical agents: visual appearance, stereotypes, and first impressions and their impact on learning. Comput. Educ. 55(2), 576–585 (2010)
Xu, Q., Li, L., Lim, J.H., Tan, C.Y.C., Mukawa, M., Wang, G.: A wearable virtual guide for context-aware cognitive indoor navigation. In: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices & Services, pp. 111–120. Association for Computing Machinery, New York (2014)
Acknowledgements
This work has been supported by the project “Innovation in Lapland through Design and Art”, funded by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and Regional Council of Lapland. We also wish to thank University of Lapland and Lapland University of Applied Sciences for their support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering
About this paper
Cite this paper
Mustonen, S., Paananen, S., Häkkilä, J. (2023). Designing Virtual Guides’ Characteristics for Remote Tourism in the Arctic. In: Brooks, A.L. (eds) ArtsIT, Interactivity and Game Creation. ArtsIT 2022. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 479. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28993-4_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28993-4_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-28992-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-28993-4
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)