The concept of immersion has been widely used for the design and evaluation of user experiences. Augmented, virtual and mixed-reality environments have further sparked the discussion of immersive user experiences and underlying requirements. However, a clear definition and agreement on design criteria of immersive experiences remains debated, creating challenges to advancing our understanding of immersive experiences and how these can be designed. Based on a multidisciplinary Delphi approach, this study provides a uniform definition of immersive experiences and identifies key criteria for the design and staging thereof. Thematic analysis revealed five key themes – transition into/out of the environment, in-experience user control, environment design, user context relatedness, and user openness and motivation, that emphasise the coherency in the user-environment interaction in the immersive experience. The study proposes an immersive experience framework as a guideline for industry practitioners, outlining key design criteria for four distinct facilitators of immersive experiences–systems, spatial, empathic/social, and narrative/sequential immersion. Further research is proposed using the immersive experience framework to investigate the hierarchy of user senses to optimise experiences that blend physical and digital environments and to study triggered, desired and undesired effects on user attitude and behaviour.
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In November 2019, scholars and practitioners from ten higher education institutions celebrated the launch of the iKudu project. This project, co-funded by Erasmus [1], focuses on capacity development for curriculum transformation through internationalisation and development of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) virtual exchange. Detailed plans for 2020 were discussed including a series of site visits and face-to-face training. However, the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the plans in ways that could not have been foreseen and new ways of thinking and doing came to the fore. Writing from an insider perspective as project partners, in this paper we draw from appreciative inquiry, using a metaphor of a mosaic as our identity, to first provide the background on the iKudu project before sharing the impact of the pandemic on the project’s adapted approach. We then discuss how alongside the focus of iKudu in the delivery of an internationalised and transformed curriculum using COIL, we have, by our very approach as project partners, adopted the principles of COIL exchange. A positive impact of the pandemic was that COIL offered a consciousness raising activity, which we suggest could be used more broadly in order to help academics think about international research practice partnerships, and, as in our situation, how internationalised and decolonised curriculum practices might be approached. 1. KA2 Erasmus+ Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices (capacity building in the field of Higher Education)
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Emotions are a key component of tourism experiences, as emotions make experiences more valued and more memorable. Peak-and-end-theory states that overall experience evaluations are best predicted by the emotions at the most intense and final moments of an experience. Peak-and-end-theory has mostly been studied for relatively simple experiences. Recent insights suggest that peak-and-end-theory does not necessarily hold for tourism experiences, which tend to be more heterogeneous and multi-episodic in nature. Through the novel approach of using electrophysiological measures in combination with experience reconstruction, the applicability of the peak-and-end-theory to the field of tourism is addressed by studying a musical theatre show in a theme park resort. Findings indicate that for a multi-episodic tourism experience, hypotheses from the peak-and-end-theory are rejected for the experience as a whole, but supported for individual episodes within the experience. Furthermore, it is shown that electrophysiology sheds a new light on the temporal dynamics of experience
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Social issues are becoming increasingly pressing. From dementia to climate change to corona; we as people, citizens, residents and city users - through our own experience or otherwise - have a sense of them. However, truly understanding and addressing these issues is difficult because there is no single owner. Everything is related, intertwined and also changing. Getting an overview and deciding together on necessary steps proves difficult. Complex issues thus become orphaned. Design and more specifically co-design - creative collaboration with others - is increasingly seen as a possible approach to these such issues and collaborations because it can deal with complexity and uncertainty, is optimistic and investigative in nature. With a co-design approach, we can find a shared desire and with that we connect with each other. By then searching together for mechanisms that can lead to the desired values, we gain insights on how to tilt a problematic situation. That enables us to imagine alternative futures. These help us on our way to a better, greener and more social world and social change.
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The use of Augmented Reality (AR) in industry is growing rapidly, driven by benefits such as efficiency gains and ability to overcome physical boundaries. Existing studies stress the need to take stakeholder values into account in the design process. In this study the impact of AR on stakeholders' values is investigated by conducting focus groups and interviews, using value sensitive design as a framework. Significant impacts were found on the values of safety, accuracy, privacy, helpfulness and autonomy. Twenty practical design choices to mitigate potential negative impact emerged from the study.
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This article investigates the transformative impacts of regular nature-based adventure activity engagement and its long-lasting effects on eudaimonic well-being (EWB), specifically mental health. Although extant research highlights a wide range of well-being and mental health benefits from participation in such pursuits, less is known about experienced outdoor adventure enthusiasts for whom adventure is a fundamental and transformational part of their lives. The study builds on an existing conceptual framework that synthesizes pertinent research concepts on nature-based activity engagement and subjective well-being benefits. It presents key findings from 40 semi-structured in-depth online interviews with respondents from the UK, Germany, and Serbia. Interview data were collated and analyzed using a thematic framework approach. The findings highlight the importance of outdoor adventure activity engagement for respondents’ mental and physical health and long-term well-being. Regular activity participation can be transformational in reducing feelings of ill-being and enhancing EWB. It can improve self-efficacy and identity development and promote the fulfilment of psychological needs, facilitated by key transformational catalyzers. Continually entering a liminal state, experiencing emotions, and overcoming challenges and risks during engagement are crucial to “successful” long-lasting transformation. Further research should continue to explore adventure’s transformational and EWB benefits to develop long-term data.
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In a matter of weeks last year, discussions regarding tourism in cities changed from how to deal with overtourism to how to deal with ‘no tourism’. Shortly thereafter, a great number of posts on LinkedIn, websites, and blogs highlighted how the tourism crisis that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic could help reinvent tourism, into something more equal, inclusive, and sustainable. And so, online – at leastin mypersonalonlinebubble – there seemedtobe a real momentum for proper, transformative changes in (urban) tourism. How can we rebuild urban tourism in a sustainable and resilient way?
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Innovation in the 21st century has been moving continuously away from the model embraced in the last century, which was characterized as a profit-oriented and silo-targeted one. Currently, the logic is being driven towards “the social” sense and value of the transformation within the reality of complexity and the continuous necessity of designing and re-designing concepts towards sustainability of a different level. The underlying motive of innovation has been for long perceived as generating predominantly economic value. However, co-designing the society in the future is now being transformed into tackling social challenges in a multi-layered complexity scenario. Thus, there has been identified a need to find complementary ways to nurture innovation, generating social and public value based on interdependence and the emergence of interrelated and constantly networking actors.
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This article explores the perceptions of development through metaphor use by students of International Business Management Studies at The Hague University. Students’ reflections upon the concepts of nature and development before and after educational intervention are examined through discourse analysis and narrative analysis. Results show that initially students reflect the dominant development paradigm which tends to conflate ‘nature’ with ‘natural resources’. This study suggests that the critical course has the potential to shift the student focus from the unquestioning acceptance of economic development and instrumental view of nature to recognition of more ecologically benign and culturally variable paths to sustainability. In terms of pedagogy, the ‘trans-human’ Gestalt, or mindset conducive to planetary consciousness, may require a distinct type of didactic strategy, discussed in this article. It is concluded that while transformative social learning towards sustainability requires the integrative switching back and forth between the various mindsets, effective, ecologically engaged and critical learning may require a more fixed, committed and above all affirmative action approach. https://doi.org/10.1177/0973408214529989 https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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