Embedded AR Storytelling Supports Active Indexing at Historical Places

Embedded interfaces support active indexing, the process of making sense of the experienced. While this supports the creation of meaningful relationships, findings are limited on how it could support sustaining the significance of historical places. We selected two historical places of daily use and developed two AR apps for each. The apps aimed at fostering participants’ indexing and meaningful connection to the places by presenting their history. One app offered passive, informative content. The other displayed an interactive, moral dilemma emphasizing the places’ social values. We tested the apps in two between-subjects studies with N=42 participants in total. We explored how participants ’ historical understanding can be improved by embedding our interfaces on five levels (spatially, physically, contextually, historically, and morally). We found that the morally embedded AR stories supported active indexing stronger than the passive ones and argued that they could foster meaningful relationships between users and historical places.