A User Experience Evaluation of the use of Augmented and Virtual Reality in Visualising and Interpreting Roman Leicester 210AD (Ratae Corieltavorum)

An earlier paper presented to the ATINER Visual Performing Arts Conference in 2013 entitled “Augmented Reality iPhone/iPad App Development to Visualise Roman Leicester (Ratae Corieltavorum) described the research, design and development of a GPS location based mobile app which showed 3D reconstructions of buildings and objects in Roman Leicester (Ratae Corieltavorum) focusing on the period around 210 A.D. This development was part of the Virtual Romans project which began in 2008 whose aim was to explore the potential for using creative technologies to present life in Roman Leicester. In this follow on paper we describe the launch of the app and its subsequent evaluation with museum visitors in 2014. The results of the evaluation indicate that GPS inaccuracies can lead to low immersion, inconvenience and a reduced visitor experience. However the results also indicate that these digital technologies can be particularly engaging and exciting for children in terms of heritage interpretation.