The Art Nouveau Path: Trajectory Analysis and Spatial Storytelling Through a Location-Based Augmented Reality Game in Urban Heritage

Urban heritage, when enhanced by digital technologies, can become a living laboratory. This study explores the Art Nouveau Path, a mobile augmented reality game implemented in Aveiro, Portugal, as part of the EduCITY Digital Teaching and Learning Ecosystem. Designed as a circular pathway of eight georeferenced Points of Interest, it integrates narrative cartography, multimodal media, and sustainability competences framed by GreenComp. A design-based research approach guided the study, combining four interconnected datasets: a game’s structured curriculum review by three subject specialists (T1-R), gameplay logs from 118 student groups (4,248 responses), post-game reflections from 439 students (S2-POST), and in-field observations from 24 teachers (T2-OBS). Descriptive statistics and thematic coding were triangulated to examine attention to architectural details, the mediational role of Augmented Reality (AR), spatial trajectories, and reflections about sustainability. Results present overall accuracy (85.33%), with particularly strong performance on video items (93.64%), stable outcomes on AR tasks (85.52%), and lower accuracy in denser urban contexts. Qualitative data highlight AR as a catalyst for perceiving hidden features, collaboration, and connecting heritage with sustainability. The study concludes that location-based AR games can generate semantically enriched geoinformation. They also act as cartographic interfaces that embed narrative and competence-oriented learning into urban heritage contexts.