Actionbound describe their app as allowing users to play “digitally interactive scavenger hunts” to enhance “people’s real-life interaction whilst using their smartphones.” (Actionbound, 2017).
My Bound took users on a treasure hunt around Brighton city centre using their smartphones and the Actionbound app. I included a Find Spot, Scan Code, Mission and Information, as well as Stage and Quiz.
According to Ritchie, stories told via mobile locative devices, such as Actionbound on a smartphone, require “really nontrivial effort,” (Ritchie, 2014: 53) because the user has to move physically around Brighton, for example, to play the game on the Actionbound app. Therefore, the user of my Actionbound is ‘navigating across digital and physical spaces’ (Ritchie, 2014: 65) by follow each step on their smartphone around Brighton.
Ritchie describes constraints as “actual and perceived attributes of an object or system that limits its possible uses.” (Ritchie, 2014: 53). When designing a locative experience with Actionbound, I experienced cultural and logical constraints. Is my Actionbound being written in English limiting who can access and play it? Also, I included two quizzes. Are these questions more biased towards people who live in Brighton as they contain Brighton trivia? There were also physical constraints in terms of could the user scan the code in the location outside of regular opening hours.
According to Casetti media intercepts information that saturates social and virtual spaces (Casetti in Berry et al, 2013: 9) and public space plays out similarly in my Bound. The public space has become linked with the virtual via the user’s smartphone. Similar to Berry et al’s analysis of the iPod, playing Actionbound on a smartphone creates a personalised world for the player which can be seen to fill the “empty spaces, times and values” of contemporary city spaces. (Berry et al, 2013: 13).
Bibliography:
Actionbound. 2017. Actionbound. Available at: https://en.actionbound.com (Accessed 03/03/17).
Berry, C., Harbord, J. and Moor, R. O. 2013. Public Space, Media Space. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Pp. 9-13.
Ritchie, J. 2014. The Affordances and Contraints of Mobile Locative Narratives. In The Mo- bile Story. Narrative Practices with Locative Technologies, ed. J. Farman, 53–67. Oxon: Routledge. Pp. 53-55.
One of the advantages of Actionbound is that the user is part of the experience. Kitchin states that during the hunting process, the user attempts to identify the elements that are relevant to the game and ignore those that are outside the story (Kitchin 2014: 65). Kitchin also states that through their actions and decisions, the user therefore acts as a co-narrator of the game (2014: 65). Participating on the game is what enriches the Actionbound game process because it materialises a concept that is purely digital. However, if the user chooses to play the game alone, this can limit the option if he/she is unable to physically move around due to a disability for example. Although not mentioned in the writings of Kitchin as one the constraints of Mobile Locative Narrative, it simply means that at the stage Actionbound is not yet open for all kind of users unless they opt for an option of multi-users.
Bibliography
Actionbound. 2017. Actionbound. Available at: https://en.actionbound.com (Accessed 10/03/17).
Ritchie, J. 2014. The Affordances and Constraints of Mobile Locative Narratives. In The Mobile Story. Narrative Practices with Locative Technologies, ed. J. Farman, 53–67. Oxon: Routledge. Pp. 53-65.