Directed looking and proximal content: two concepts for designing mobile guides to historic urban places

Over the past decade, a body of HCI research has investigated technologies intended to enrich visitors' experience of historic places in situ. While much of this research has examined novel technologies and forms of interaction, in this paper we explore a complementary question: How do different kinds of content presented on a mobile device affect visitors' interaction with place? We present some findings from the design and evaluation of a mobile guide to the architectural history of a major city street in Melbourne. Through direct observation of students taking the tour and a later survey questionnaire, we found that some kinds of content were more effective in supporting peoples' interrogation of place. To explain this we propose two related concepts relevant to the design of mobile content in this context: directed looking and proximal content.