# A Gamified Augmented Reality Application for Digital Heritage and Tourism
## 1 Introduction
### Underlying Motivation  
This paper will propose an AR quiz game designed to increase the time museum visitors interact with artefacts and offer a playful way of navigation in the 3D space and as well an alternative method of gained knowledge assessment. In this study, we accept that museum exhibitions have a native educational purpose, and in this regard, we identify three main reasons for using modern AR technologies:  
Personalization: It can be said that from an educational point of view, what AR technology has to offer is mainly personalization and visualization. Museum visitors, as potential learners of new knowledge, can have a certain level of control over the learning speed or rhythm. Having museum visitors with a wide range of ages, cultural and knowledge backgrounds, it becomes easily understood why adjusting the pace of learning into one's own needs could be so important. Interacting with the educational content of a museum in your own device and under your own rhythm of interaction is a very good example of learning speed adjustment to personal needs and preferences. Moreover, visitors can follow their own navigation route through the information space and pay attention to details of the museum artefacts they enjoy the most. AR technologies give the opportunity to make such adjustments to the needs of individuals.  
Motivation: AR can maximize the learner's motivation, especially for young learners who love storytelling, play leisure AR/VR games quite often, and can easily master mobile devices. From a constructivist approach, AR museum games can be understood not only as mediums to capture and maintain the attention of the audience but also as a way to reconstruct the meaning of the artefacts through animated storytelling inserted into the AR scenarios. This museological storytelling is working closely with visitor's emotions and fantasy to maximize user engagement and interest. Moreover, certain game elements such as competition, challenges, conflict, control, and awards for achieving goals can work as \"experience amplifiers\" for all ages of museum visitors and prevent boring museum visits.  
Learning Efficiency: Perceiving learning speed as one of the success criteria for technology-based educational activities, we can accept that learning in AR museum settings (e.g., using virtual reconstructions of artefacts, possibly examining alternative conditions, taking risks in a safe environment, etc.) can help master the skills and knowledge faster and/or deeper than in a classroom or in other forms of typical education. The better learning curve observed when AR applications are being used has frequently been reported in the literature [33].  
Based on all of the above, the underlying motivation of this work is to explore the expected educational benefits and models of user experience enhancement caused by introducing AR navigation and games in museum settings, mainly in indoor exhibitions. The main objective is to achieve a fair balance between leisure and usefulness without retreats to other qualities such as usability and technology acceptance. The following sections present the e-Tracer AR application, which was designed according to the principles previously discussed.