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Mobile User Experience to Learn About Geology While Hiking:
The Syros GeoPaths app
Panayiotis Koutsabasis
Department of Product and Systems
Design Engineering, University of the
Aegean, Greece
kgp@aegean.gr
Andreas Nikolarakis
Department of Product and Systems
Design Engineering, University of the
Aegean, Greece,
andreas.nik@aegean.gr
Eriana Panopoulou
Department of Product and Systems
Design Engineering, University of the
Aegean, Greece
eriana.pan@gmail.com
Stevy Georgiadi
Department of Product and Systems
Design Engineering, University of the
Aegean, Greece
stevy.georgiadi@syros.aegean.gr
Constantinos Mavrogonatos
Department of Geology and
Geoenvironment, National
Kapodistrian University of Athens
kmavrogon@geol.uoa.gr
Martin Engi
Institute of Geological Sciences,
University of Bern, Switzerland
martin.engi@unibe.ch
ABSTRACT
This paper presents the design and eld evaluation of Syros
GeoPaths, a mobile app that has been developed to support visitors
of the Syros GeoPark, so they learn about its geological signicance
while hiking in a protected area. Syros GeoPaths supports the user
experience before, during, and after a hike following principles
of calm design. Before the hike, the app informs hikers about the
preparations needed and the characteristics of the paths. During
the hike, the app helps users navigate the GeoPaths and points
of interest, while presenting geological information in visual and
audio descriptions. After the hike, the app oers certicates of
achievements to visitors, based on statistics of the user behavior
during the hike. The app has been developed in open technologies:
Android and OpenStreetMaps. It fully operates without requiring
data connection, since this is sometimes unavailable in this area.
A eld evaluation of the Syros GeoPaths mobile app has identied
several user experience issues, which are considered to improve
this app and, more generally, to design hiking apps for learning
about geology, archaeology, or other elds of interest.
CCS CONCEPTS
•Human-centered computing;•Human computer interac-
tion (HCI);•Empirical studies in HCI;
KEYWORDS
mobile user experience, hiking mobile app, eld testing, geology
ACM Reference Format:
Panayiotis Koutsabasis, Andreas Nikolarakis, Eriana Panopoulou, Stevy
Georgiadi, Constantinos Mavrogonatos, and Martin Engi. 2023. Mobile User
Experience to Learn About Geology While Hiking: The Syros GeoPaths
app. In 2nd International Conference of the ACM Greek SIGCHI Chapter
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International
4.0 License.
CHIGREECE 2023, September 27, 28, 2023, Athens, Greece
©2023 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).
ACM ISBN 979-8-4007-0888-6/23/09.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3609987.3609999
(CHIGREECE 2023), September 27, 28, 2023, Athens, Greece. ACM, New York,
NY, USA, 8 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3609987.3609999
1 INTRODUCTION
Hiking in nature is a recreational human activity for people of
many ages and interests. Hiking often is a relaxed activity that
people enjoy, making stops and observations at their own pace.
Hiking also can be a learning experience for visitors and tourists in
areas of particular beauty or interest for their ora, fauna, geology,
culture or other topics. Typically, hikers follow paths that may be
previously unknown to them, as they visit an area for the rst time.
Hikers’ safety is crucial. It is related to their experience and physi-
cal condition, as well as knowledge about the path and potential
hazards. In the mountains, path indications and signs may be scant,
so hikers often use their mobile phones to address those challenges.
Mobile apps designed for specic areas and paths will guide hikers
and help them learn about nature. Hiking apps dier from those for
other sports or tness apps that focus on recording and monitoring
users’ athletic performance.
Mobile apps about hiking and geology contribute to raise aware-
ness, not only of scientic features, but of the natural environment
in general and thus encourage people to preserve and protect it.
The experience of hiking and learning about geology should be
supported by the app, helping users to plan and prepare measures
that allow them to hike safely, at their own pace. It should lead them
to points of interest (POI) and direct them to observe geological
phenomena in the eld.
The design process of mobile apps for hiking and geology must
address various issues related to content creation and mobile user
interaction, including: pre-recording and representing paths on a
map; creating valid content with the help of expert scientists; in-
forming hikers how to prepare well before their hike; helping hikers
navigate safely along the path as well as at a POI (micro-navigation);
directing hikers to observe geological phenomena and understand
them; ensuring service availability even where connectivity may
be poor.
This paper presents the design and eld evaluation of a mobile
app for hiking and geology, called ‘Syros GeoPaths’, for the case of
Apano Meria, a protected area in Syros island, Greece. The goal of
this paper is to outline a user-centered process for the development
CHIGREECE 2023, September 27, 28, 2023, Athens, Greece Panayiotis Koutsabasis et al.
of this mobile app as well as to discuss experience issues users
reported from a eld evaluation. The paper is structured as follows:
Section 2 presents background and related work about the mobile
user experience design with emphasis on hiking apps. Section 3
presents and the current situation and problems of hiking in the
designated area. Section 4 presents the design thinking process
followed of the Syros GeoPaths mobile app focusing on eld visits,
content design, interaction and UI (user interface) design, technical
development. Section 5 presents the eld-testing process for the
Syros GeoPaths mobile app in terms of method, participants, and
results. In Section 6 we discuss and summarize important user
experience issues identied throughout the process.
2 MOBILE USER EXPERIENCE AND APPS
RELATED TO HIKING
User experience (UX) refers to a user’s perceptions and responses
that result from the use and/or anticipated use of a system, product,
or service (ISO 9241-10) [
9
]. User experiences depend on the internal
state of the user (e.g. predispositions, expectations, needs, motives,
mood, etc.), the characteristics of the product, system or service (e.g.
functionality, content, usability, etc.), and the context of interaction.
The design of digital products for the user experience is concerned
with every element of user interactions including user interface
components, layouts, ow, content (texts and audiovisual content),
brand, sound, etc. In the case of mobile user experiences, a complex
set of features and constraints apply including users being on the
move and the app must not require their full attention; mobile
device resources must be handled with care (battery can run out,
sketchy network access, small screen, etc.); many possibilities for
user interactions including sensor-based input/output, voice and
text-based interactions and multi-touch gestures.
Mobile devices are widely used for navigation outdoors. Quality
issues in route navigation systems for pedestrians are reviewed by
Siriarayia et al. [
18
]. They identify various quality factors beyond
nding the shortest route, such as safety (crime-free, accident-free),
exploration (POI, venues, novel views), pleasure (nature, scenery)
and well-being (exercise, avoiding hazards), and they suggest that
route planning algorithms should incorporate such criteria from
respective data sources.
Physical activity in nature can be supported by various sports
and tness apps that focus on recording and monitoring user ath-
letic performance depending on the sport (e.g. walking, running,
cycling). Such apps have developed a variety of functionalities from
personalized training plans, weight loss tracking, to measuring
steps and distance covered, estimating calories loss, etc., and some
apps also explore social interactions in this context.
Hakkila and Rovaniemi [
7
] and Anderson and Jones [
1
] argue
that mobile technology has the potential to support activities in
nature in ways that can be regarded as calming, relaxing and pu-
rifying, provided that the systems developed support users in an
unobtrusive manner. For example, the Hobbit app [
17
] explores
the concept of an asocial hiking app, in which users can generate
routes that avoid meeting other people.
Many mobile apps address tourists who are interested in learn-
ing about local culture and heritage. For instance, Cheverst et al.
[
1
] present a mobile app that explores the English Lake District’s
cultural heritage, including the poetry inspired by the landscape. A
strand of this work includes location-based games for cultural her-
itage, such as the Mouseion Topos mobile games [
12
] in which the
visitor of a museum takes the role of a local undertaking missions
and challenges to explore the museum and nearby village to learn
about the local heritage of craftsmanship.
Several mobile apps have been developed for protected areas
and natural geoparks. In the case of the Hoge Kempen National
Park, Belgium [
21
], a mobile app aids users to generate, access,
and record hiking routes within the protected area, giving basic
information about the park, including captivating points, typical
ora, and fauna. In the case of the Magma geopark in Norway [
13
],
the mobile app supports treasure hunts and audio guides with the
use of GPS and maps. A dierent approach is followed for the design
of the Geopark Odsherred mobile app [
6
], which incorporates 3D
views and augmented reality from the highest point that have been
reconstructed in four time periods over the last 25,000 years; this is
not a location-based app, and users can access content regardless
of being in the park. Finally, a few apps have been developed to aid
learning basic concepts of geology in the eld (e.g. [17]).
Due to the nature of the hiking activity, mobile apps that support
it may benet from calm design approaches [
3
], in which interac-
tions between users and technology occur in the user’s periphery
rather than constantly at the center of attention. The development
of mobile hiking apps that promote learning about geology may
also benet from input from domain experts. This paper addresses
these issues by presenting detailed case study that applies the de-
sign thinking process [
15
] for mobile hiking apps that promote
learning about geology. In addition, in many cases of related work
there is not substantial empirical evidence about the design, usabil-
ity and usefulness of the mobile apps with respect to hiker (user)
requirements. This paper contributes to the current knowledge
about the user experience of hiking by collecting and presenting
several issues identied by a thorough eld-testing activity that
may be considered for other cases.
3 CURRENT SITUATION IN THE AREA:
HIKING AND GEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The northern parts of Syros Island are called ‘Apano Meria’, a pro-
tected area with a splendid landscape, one of the best preserved in
all the Cyclades. A large part of it is declared a Natura 2000 site, and
it is part of a network of core breeding and resting sites for rare and
threatened species, and some rare natural habitat types that are pro-
tected (European Commission, Natura 2000). This world of beauty
also harbors a rich treasure of geological features: Syros is emi-
nently signicant to geologists as it displays a rich variety of very
unusual metamorphic rocks. Intense scientic research (e.g. [
1
][10])
has documented that the island displays parts of an exhumed sub-
duction zone. This has inspired the project of a Syros GeoPark that
is currently being realized. It includes a series of Geopaths that lead
visitors to Apano Meria to explore the exceptionally well visible
geological features.
Five GeoPaths of various lengths introduce a range of geological
topics. The GeoPaths include trails that have been used by few
inhabitants and visitors for hundreds of years, albeit so far not
systematically maintained or well-marked. The GeoPaths dier
Mobile User Experience to Learn About Geology While Hiking: The Syros GeoPaths app CHIGREECE 2023, September 27, 28, 2023, Athens, Greece
Figure 1: The Syros GeoPaths mobile app was developed with the Design Thinking Process in mind.
in length, and they do require some physical tness. Hikers must
judge which GeoPaths are suitable for their own abilities and time
constraints. Most GeoPaths lead to beautiful beaches of the island,
and summer visitors often take these paths with the aim to swim or
camp. The landscape is virgin and dry. There is neither water nor
any emergency response service along the way. Therefore, hikers
must be well-prepared before they start to hike in the area, wearing
appropriate shoes and clothes, carrying a few supplies (water, etc.),
and being aware of a few local hazards (snakes, re hazard, etc.).
Each GeoPath includes various points of interest (POIs) that
present geological processes, rock types, and minerals. Many of
these features are linked to tectonic processes that occurred over
millions of years when the African Plate was pushed beneath the
Eurasian Plate. This giant collision led to the formation of a moun-
tain chain, of which the Cycladic islands today are but the highest
remnants, with valleys now submerged in the Aegean Sea. Syros
stands out among these islands because it displays an extraordinary
range of well-preserved rocks and structural features. These have
attracted countless geologists from all over the world to conduct
research and eld camps for students. By establishing a Syros GeoP-
ark the goal is to raise awareness in the general public and to attract
sustainable tourism for hiking to the island.
4 DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE
SYROS GEOPATHS MOBILE APP
We have developed the Syros GeoPaths mobile application with the
design thinking process in mind. Design thinking was proposed in
the early 1990s by David Kelley and Tim Brown of IDEO [
2
]. It is
a mindset that promotes the co-operation of designers, users, and
other stakeholders in joint learning and creative activities, and a
process to achieve these. According to the interaction-design.org,
the design thinking process is iterative and comprises of ve phases:
(a) Empathize: conduct contextual research to gain knowledge
about users and their experience,
(b) Dene: identify user needs and project goals based on user
experience research,
(c) Ideate: generate creative ideas for addressing user needs and
meeting project goals,
(d) Prototype: create representations and artifacts that demon-
strate the ideas in practice and test quickly and internally,
(e) Test: show prototype(s) to users and gather feedback for
improvements.
The design thinking process is not linked with particular design
methods; it is the responsibility of the design team to select or
devise these methods with respect to their expertise, the problem
at hand and the particular contextual and resource requirements
and constraints. In this work, we have adopted various methods,
tools, and resources that we considered appropriate at each phase
of the process (Figure 1). These combine joint activities (eld visits,
content authoring, eld testing) in the research and evaluation
phases of the project, along with design/development/stakeholder
meetings. We cooperated with various experts and users, including
geology experts, inhabitants and people from local community,
hiker groups and other potential users, educators, and students.
4.1 Empathize
We rst set out to understand the current user experience of hiking
in the area as well as to get acquainted with the geological signi-
cance of the place. To achieve these, we adopted an active approach
of learning in the eld, that mainly involved going on to several
CHIGREECE 2023, September 27, 28, 2023, Athens, Greece Panayiotis Koutsabasis et al.
Table 1: Main dening elements of the user experience of hiking with the Syros GeoPaths mobile app.
Pain points Specications (content / interaction) Constraints
If hikers do not wear hiking shoes there is
danger of injuries; there is no water
available, the sun is too bright and hot, etc.
(hikers must be well-prepared)
The app will present GeoPaths with
certain length, diculty, etc. A GeoPath
includes several POIs.
Mobile network coverage is sketchy; the
app must fully operate without network.
Hikers may lose the path because it is not
well visible, and there are no signs.
All POIs must be shown on a map. A POI
presents a few geological topics and
geological terms.
The app is provided free of charge. Maps
must be free of charge (Open Street Maps)
Hikers may observe some geological
phenomena but do not understand them.
The app can record user actions and
locations and present statistics after the
user nishes hiking a GeoPath.
The user must activate the GPS sensor to
enable device location tracking.
Hikers may get tired on certain paths due to
elevation dierences.
The app should contribute to the UX
before, during and after a hike.
The user must be able to magnify all
images/videos or view in full screen.
A few small parts of the paths may be
dicult to hike.
The app must inform user about all
required preparations before hiking.
Text to Speech must be available for
geological descriptions.
The UI must be visible in conditions of
bright sunlight.
The app must support English and Greek
language (TTS, strings, etc.).
hikes (eld visits) guided by expert geologists and including in-
terested members of the local community. Totally, we have gone to
about twenty half-day hikes in a period of two years. During these
hikes, we conducted several semi-structured interviews with other
participants, and generated a mass of eld notes on facts and ideas
based on comments and observations. The main outcomes of these
activities can be summarized into the development of empathy
for the natural environment and the people who already hike in
the area. We also learnt the basics about some geological phenom-
ena that can be observed in the landscape, at large and small scale.
Finally, we produced hundreds of photos and other media, that
would later be reviewed for incorporation into the content of the
mobile app.
4.2 Dene
After we had suciently explored the design problem and user
needs, we proceeded to design/stakeholder meetings to dene
the basic elements of the Syros GeoPaths mobile app. During these
meetings we reviewed the experience of eld visits and explored
several hiking scenarios that would use the mobile app. The main
dening elements of the mobile experience were classied into
user pain points, content specications and mobile user experience
constraints that had to be respected. These are summarized in Table
1.
4.3 Ideate
The ideation process typically occurred in design meetings. Ideation
was about several design elements like the interaction ow of the
app, layout of main screens, particular interaction patterns or wid-
gets (like lists, maps, image galleries, etc.), and elements of visual
identity (logo, colors/styles, fonts, icons, and graphics). A prototype
was developed in Figma. The prototype was reviewed by geology
experts and stakeholders and the design team several times, as some
ideas and concepts were tested and rejected in favor of others. The
prevailing visual design is depicted in Figure 2. The design of the
Syros GeoPaths mobile app has followed the key principles of calm
design that promote peripheral attention, context, and ambient
awareness [
3
]. Design choices that reect the main specications
and constraints to be met include the following:
•
A high-contrast UI theme was chosen to promote high visi-
bility of the app in conditions of bright sunlight.
•
The three main aspects of user experience: plan, hike,
achievements are clearly described during onboarding and
in the start screen.
•
A check list of important provisions that every hiker must
take is provided.
•
All GeoPaths are presented in a list with relevant information
about length, diculty, etc.
•
Each GeoPath is viewed in detail with the use of an elevation
prole diagram, a map, and a list of POIs.
•
The GPS sensor must be enabled so that the app calculates
the distance of the device location to all POIs. The user can
view and refresh their own position with respect to all POIs.
•
Each POI contains a photo gallery, and 1-3 geological topics.
•
Each geological topic contains a photo gallery and 1-5 geo-
logical terms.
•Each geological term contains a photo and description.
•
Each POI, topic, geological term can be spoken aloud with
Text-To-Speech (TTS) technology.
•
After the user visits all POIs of a geopath, they earn an
achievement certicate that shows statistics about the hike
(e.g. distance covered), and app usage (e.g. views of geological
terms). Users are also encouraged to share it on their social
media.
Mobile User Experience to Learn About Geology While Hiking: The Syros GeoPaths app CHIGREECE 2023, September 27, 28, 2023, Athens, Greece
Figure 2: Screen shots of the Syros GeoPaths mobile app. Functionality explained from upper left: Onboarding | Start screen |
Plan your hike (select items) | Overview of GeoPaths | (Selected) GeoPath overview | POI overview (on map and horizontal list) |
(Selected) POI detailed view | (Geological) topic detailed view | Achievements.
4.4 Develop
The technological and software development of the Syros GeoPaths
mobile app was made in Android Studio with Java programming
language. The app makes use of OSMDroid, an open-source library
that provides OpenStreetMaps to Android. The maps are pre-loaded
during installation, they work without requiring access to a net-
work. All texts and graphics have been optimized for Android apps
and these are also embedded in the app. A local database has been
developed as part of the app, it can locate all GeoPaths, POIs, topics,
geological terms and respective resources (strings, photos, videos,
graphics, etc.). The content of the app is provided in the English
and Greek language.
Regarding content production and development, from the wealth
of potential topics identied throughout eld visits, a selection
was made to provide a didactic introduction to various geological
phenomena, by geology experts. The aim was to concentrate on a
distinct set of relatively few themes along each of the ve GeoPaths,
to render the complex geological history of Syros amenable.
5 FIELD TESTING OF THE SYROS GEOPATHS
MOBILE APP
5.1 Aims and method
The aims of the evaluation were (a) to assess key design choices
and remaining concerns by participant observation, (b) to identify
possible functionality issues or bugs that might appear in the eld,
and (c) to record all comments, questions, and corrections made by
participants. We employed the method of eld testing in a similar
manner to [
9
]. The eld tests occurred in two days. On each day,
two GeoPaths were selected for hiking (i.e. four paths were tested in
total). Participants were accompanied and observed by researchers.
All participants were interviewed throughout the process, and as is-
sues came up. The researchers kept notes by various means, mainly
with their mobile devices: digital notetaking, screenshots, short
video notes.
5.2 Participants
We recruited participants with variable proles, who hiked the
GeoPaths using the mobile app. All participants had downloaded
CHIGREECE 2023, September 27, 28, 2023, Athens, Greece Panayiotis Koutsabasis et al.
Table 2: Participants per hike / eld testing session
Hikes / eld testing sessions
Geopath 1 Geopath 2 Geopath 3 Geopath 4 Total Total (unique)
Participants 10 4 9 4 27 21
Researchers 2 1 1 1 5 3
Figure 3: Participants’ age, occupation, education level.
the app the day before on their devices and they had the oppor-
tunity to review it beforehand. Four participants did not own an
Android device and they were provided with one, the day before
the hike. The total number of participants was 21, nine women;
six participated on both hikes/days. Participants selected their pre-
ferred GeoPath based on their physical condition. Three researchers
accompanied participants throughout the eld testing and hiking
activity. The completion of questionnaires was optional.
Most participants were recruited from academia. The prole
of participants ranged substantially. In terms of age, they ranged
from 21 to 69 years. Their expertise ranged from undergraduate
students to university professors. Most participants used the app
in their native language; a few switched to English based on their
preference. Greek native speakers were 18/21, while all participants
were uent English speakers. About half of the participants were
frequent hikers (53%). Most participants reported a relatively good
physical condition (equal or above 7/10). More than half of the
participants (58%) reported that they had never used a mobile app
for hiking. Nearly one-third of participants (29.6%) were geology
professors or students, who could provide specic comments about
the content of the app.
5.3 Results
5.3.1 Findings from participant observation during the hikes, and
survey responses. Eighteen participants lled out the survey ques-
tionnaire. All ndings were encoded by the research team into the
following categories: functionality (the technical quality of the app),
usability; content quality (texts, photos, data), navigation support,
user story (about observed user behavior and preferred or nice-to-
have features). A total of 116 ndings were recorded by users, 52
of them unique. They were classied into very important (2 issues,
2%), important (12 issues, 10%, minor (22 issues, 19%), cosmetic
(16 issues, 14%), and not a separate issue (i.e. mostly these were
multiple mentions, 64 issues, 55%).
Figure 4 (left) shows the classication of ndings into categories.
Most ndings (22 issues, 42%) were about geological content: ques-
tions or corrections to texts, terminology, and photographs. 16
issues (31%) were about usability; these were mainly about the
ambiguous design of a few icons and the interactivity of some ele-
ments, especially on the map. Another ten (19%) issues were related
to functionality, most strikingly a few unexpected GPS glitches that
showed the user quite far from the actual location (several km!). A
few issues were reported about navigation, most importantly that
the paths must be cleared and signed so that the app would not
have to support detailed navigation, except when the hiker may
have gone far from the path.
5.3.2 UEQ responses. To complement data from participant obser-
vation and survey responses, we employed the User Experience
Questionnaire (UEQ) [
17
] which allows immediate quantitative
measurement of user experience and benchmarking. Sixteen partic-
ipants lled out the UEQ questionnaire. UEQ uses 26 Likert-scale
(7-point) questions to measure six scales; attractiveness (overall
Mobile User Experience to Learn About Geology While Hiking: The Syros GeoPaths app CHIGREECE 2023, September 27, 28, 2023, Athens, Greece
Figure 4: Left: Taxonomy of ndings from participant observation and survey responses. Right: UEQ scores.
impression of the system), clarity (how easy it is to get familiar
with the product), eciency (can users solve their tasks with the
product without unnecessary eort?), dependability (does the user
feel in control of the interaction?), stimulation (how exciting and
motivating is to use the system?), and novelty (how innovating and
creative is the system?).
UEQ responses were interpreted with the UEQ data analysis
tool [
17
] (Figure 4, right). The mean scores of all six scales ranged
from 1.047 to 2.292. According to Schrepp [
17
] “it is extremely
unlikely to observe values above +2 or below
−
2
. . .
the standard
interpretation of the scale means is that values between
−
0.8 and
0.8 represent a neutral evaluation of the corresponding scale, values
> 0.8 represent a positive evaluation and values <
−
0.8 represent
a negative evaluation”. In these terms, our results demonstrate a
positive user experience for all participants.
6 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
We reect on several issues of the user experience of hiking with
the Syros GeoPaths mobile app, which may be considered for the
redesign of the app and, more generally, for hiking apps for learning
(about geology or similar elds).
GeoPath Clearing and Signage. The GeoPaths are not yet
cleared and signage is not yet present. This limits the hiking ex-
perience, especially regarding user (micro-) navigation and hikers
feeling safe. Once signage is provided, it will be exploited in the Sy-
ros GeoPaths app design to include QR-codes or image recognition
technology (in ways similar to [5]).
Planning and Warning Enhancements. We identied a few
missing issues about planning the hike to the Syros GeoPaths. These
are related to a few local hazards that may come up (especially to
pay attention to snakes that might be seen near the paths), so hikers
must be made aware. Since hikers may be tourists or visitors who
visit the place for the rst time, they may be quite unfamiliar with
the specic natural environment and its potential hazards.
Dynamic Map Design Features. The digital map is the most
important feature of the app. It must be interactive and provide
various indications about the user approaching a POI or about POIs
already viewed. A few improvements were identied during eld
testing, which could not have been discovered in the lab.
Passive Notication Support. Before eld testing, we were
uncertain whether passive notications would be valuable for hik-
ers. One point of uncertainty was whether notication should be
about approaching a POI or/and about hiking away from the path.
Additional technical challenges concerned the design and imple-
mentation of a notication system based solely on GPS data for
an open landscape (with no signposts, road or street information).
Field testing has shown that notications are not required since
hikers generally could navigate along the path we had drawn onto
the digital map.
Micro-navigation Support. We refer to micro-navigation when
a hiker is very close to the POI of interest but still needs to identify
the exact spot. This occurred a few times on specic POIs that
included several geological topics and terms with dierent issues to
be observed and related photos. Photo captioning should be added,
while detailed signage on-site can also help.
Micro-interaction improvements. A few micro-interaction
improvements were identied in the process of eld testing. For
example, showing POIs visited in a dierent color on the digital
map will help the user remember places visited. Or showing the
list of POIs into the map from the last POI the user had has visited
is required when the user views POI details and then moves back
on the digital map. Such micro-interaction issues may signicantly
improve the user experience, and they are very hard to discover
without an empirical eld-testing process.
Narrative and content development. Several issues were dis-
covered about the narrative and content developed. The selection
of TTS voice was not acceptable for some users, and they needed
help to change this (they could do that from device settings, but
the app should guide them how). More importantly, we identied
various issues about text phrasing and consistency of terminology.
These are important in some circumstances and very easy to x.
This paper presented the design process, design rationale, and the
ndings of an empirical eld-testing process of the Syros GeoPaths
mobile app that supports visitors and tourists to hike and learn
about the geology of the protected area of Apano Meria in Syros
Island Greece. The design of the app follows key principles of calm
design that promote peripheral attention, context, and ambient
awareness. The software implementation approach builds on open
technologies (Android, OpenStreetMaps) and addresses the con-
straint of sketchy network availability by embedding all content
CHIGREECE 2023, September 27, 28, 2023, Athens, Greece Panayiotis Koutsabasis et al.
into a local database. Empirical evaluation was carried out with
eld-testing sessions that allowed us to identify several user expe-
rience issues in an authentic context of use. We propose that the
design process followed, and empirical ndings presented in this
paper may be a useful case for other practitioners who work on
mobile apps for hiking and learning about geology.
Future work includes ne tuning of the design and development
of the nal version of the app. At the time of writing the app has not
released to the Google Play Store, however this is a planned action
after ne-tuning. Another action for future work is the evaluation
of the learning eects to various groups hikers and visitors, includ-
ing teachers and pupils, geology students and academics, tourists,
residents, and others. Other actions that may be identied after the
release of the app might include updates of geological content as
well as addition of content for more geopaths.
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