Supporting the design of location-based experiences by creative individuals

This paper discusses the creative practice of independents and individuals and their requirements for tools to author location-based experiences (LBE), including location-based games (LBG). The work describes and presents initial findings from a questionnaire study and a workshop. Both studies focused upon the working practices of individuals and small independent artists, hackers and researchers, rather than designers or developers in large commercial companies or small to medium sized enterprises. A qualitative analysis of findings from the studies were used to inform user requirements and design of next-generation authoring tools through a process of co-design. It was identified that creative individuals typically used a complex and wide-ranging set of design and development tools. These often varied for each project, and were sometimes bespoke. Requirements for future creative design tools could be grouped into higher levels categories to support: flexibility and extendability of authoring tools; in-situ authoring and the seamless transition between desktop and mobile locations; improved positioning; and authoring beyond maps.