The widespread popularity of Pokémon GO presents the first opportunity to observe the geographic effects of locationbased gaming at scale. This paper reports the results of a mixed methods study of the geography of Pokémon GO that includes a five-country field survey of 375 Pokémon GO players and a large scale geostatistical analysis of game elements. Focusing on the key geographic themes of places and movement, we find that the design of Pokémon GO reinforces existing geographically-linked biases (e.g. the game advantages urban areas and neighborhoods with smaller minority populations), that Pokémon GO may have instigated a relatively rare large-scale shift in global human mobility patterns, and that Pokémon GO has geographicallylinked safety risks, but not those typically emphasized by the media. Our results point to geographic design implications for future systems in this space such as a means through which the geographic biases present in Pokémon GO may be counteracted.

Landmark-based navigation systems have proven benefits relative to traditional turn-by-turn systems that use street names and distances. However, one obstacle to the implementation of landmark-based navigation systems is the complex challenge of selecting salient local landmarks at each decision point for each user. In this paper, we present Pharos, a novel system that extends turn-by-turn navigation instructions using a single global landmark (e.g. the Eiffel Tower, the Burj Khalifa, municipal TV towers) rather than multiple, hard-to-select local landmarks. We first show that our approach is feasible in a large number of cities around the world through the use of computer vision to select global landmarks. We then present the results of a study demonstrating that by including global landmarks in navigation instructions, users navigate more confidently and build a more accurate mental map of the navigated area than using turn-by-turn instructions.

This paper describes the design and evaluation process of a location-based serious game in a heritage awareness context. Conveying knowledge regarding tangible cultural heritage with the help of video games is a well-established concept. Though many applications in this domain have proven to be effective, they always rely on restrictions regarding time, place and usage of specific hardware. In contrast to previous approaches, we have developed Memorial Quest, a serious game with the objective to convey knowledge regarding cultural heritage objects accessible without aforementioned constraints. We examined educational effects by conducting a user study (n = 40) in which we compared our game to a common learning method in cultural heritage. Statistical analysis of the results revealed that learning effects were significantly larger when playing the game instead of perceiving the same contents in a traditional way. With the help of questionnaires and qualitative data, we identified possible flaws and elaborated potential improvements for future iterations.

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