Design Considerations for Augmented Reality Location-Based Exergaming: Lessons from Pokémon Go

Pokémon Go (PG) is renowned as the most successful and extensively studied ‘augmented reality’ (AR) game, location-based game, and exergame, yielding a vast player base and extensive research body documenting PGs exercise benefits. Unfortunately, our prior work found that 48.4% of PG players never use the AR features, 37.5% use AR features less than 10% of the time, and only ~9% of players use the AR features more than 50% of the time. Thus, we previously argued that PG is not an ‘AR’ game in a realized sense because so few players use the optional AR features. This has implications for the interpretation of any previous work, especially with vulnerable groups, claiming the health benefits of AR for exercise that did not explicitly evaluate AR usage behavior. To understand why players opt out of PGs AR features, this paper examines player usage behaviors via a diverse, international survey featuring 64 PG players from nine countries. This work describes why players choose to opt in/out of using PGs AR features and concludes with seven design considerations for future AR location-based game and exergame development/evaluation. Moreover, this work explores challenges with the AR interface experienced by 6 disabled players.