Markers as Facilitators: The Role of Playful Interactive Markers in Collaborative Mobile AR Games

• Authors: TAWDE Vinaya Rajan; KRIGLSTEIN Simone
• Year of publication: 2026
• Type: Paper in proceedings
• Conference: CHI EA '26: Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Article No.: 454, Pages 1 - 6
• MU Faculty or unit: Faculty of Informatics
• Doi: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772363.3798432
• Keywords: Mobile AR; Co-located collaboration; Marker-based AR Games
• Description: Marker-based mobile AR is widely used in playful games that combine digital content with shared physical objects. While prior research shows that mobile AR games can enable co-located collaboration, little is known about how playful markers within games themselves scaffold cooperative action. We examine how experts envision using playful markers for collaboration after hands-on interaction with a marker-based AR game prototype. Survey responses point to three key ideas: markers as shared focal points, collaboration that develops through play, and a preference for small, closely coordinated groups.

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