Innovation Through Universal Design in Agile UX Software Development Teams. A Collaborative Case Study of an Under Graduate AR Tourist Guide Project.

The study has the objective of designing AR tourist guide mobile app within an academic teaching framework facilitating collaborative (e.g. external commercial partners), cooperative (i.e. external academic experts) and user-centred design (UCD). [1]The tourist guide app, VisitAR, is a digitized tour application that portrays information in the form of landmarks and information windows. VisitAR provides a seamless walking experience in real-time by using your location, and triggering pop up information windows while you walk at Carlingford Ireland. The application testing was completed by using several usability evaluation methods i.e. technical field testing, living lab testing including speaking thoughts out loud, usability focus group testing and usability analysis As a result, by teaching UD within an experiential, living lab, a more realistic design context is provided, addressing realistic UX and SD, allowing deployment of potentially commercially viable solutions, which address the needs of a more diverse range of end users. As part of this case study, both qualitative and quantitative data related to UX, usability and SD from each stage of development was evaluated.