Evaluating usability for an AR-enabled escape room authoring ecosystem

Abstract

The increasing ubiquity of mobile devices has enabled the surge of interactive experiences at cultural heritage sites, enriching visitor immersion. However, adapting interactive resources for different settings and types of creators remains a challenge. This paper introduces EnigMachine Editor, a web-based authoring tool for crafting augmented reality-enabled adventures inspired by treasure hunts and escape rooms. Designed for curators and hobbyists, it simplifies the generation of custom experiences without prior technical expertise, streamlining development compared to using traditional game engines directly. The main objective of this work is to comprehensively evaluate the usability of EnigMachine Editor for non-technical users, alongside its ability to generate engaging game experiences. A game experience study was first conducted in which participants interacted with games from the platform and subsequently completed the Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ). Next, two usability studies were conducted in which participants first completed a tutorial with Single Ease Questions (SEQ) after each exercise, and then a series of both short- and long-term tasks on the tool concluded with the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire. The results obtained demonstrate that EnigMachine Editoris able to generate satisfactory experiences for museum visitors and highlight desirable usability properties, especially in the short-term test group.