Everyday ARctivities in-the-Wild: Insights from a Farmers Market Field Study

Abstract

Augmented Reality (AR) Head-Mounted Displays (HMD) are often envisioned as future replacements for smartphones in everyday tasks. Understanding their performance in realistic settings is crucial for assessing their potential and limitations. We conducted a within-subject field study (n = 12) where participants completed a shopping task at a crowded outdoor farmers market, utilizing a shopping list app and three interaction options: a smartphone and two AR interactions (hand- and head-anchored). Our results indicate that the smartphone outperformed both AR HMD conditions in terms of workload, ease-of-use, and pragmatic quality. While AR HMDs scored higher in hedonic quality, participants still favored the smartphone experience. Post-task interviews offered perspectives into user preferences, contextual challenges and how the different interactions shaped shopping experiences. Based on our findings, we derive insights into using HMDs in an everyday on-the-move task, and highlight lessons learned for designing such AR experiences.