Testing Anchors, User Experience and Usability Among 4 Game Elements in a Kindy Immersive Augmented Reality Game

The metaverse, which in essence interconnects ecosystems and channels (e.g. Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality, and Internet of Things), is challenging, not only in terms of system design, but also, self-efficacy and technology acceptance. One of the challenges is being lost in immersiveness, if the navigation is absent or not well-structured, especially if the story is long. Hence, this paper has investigated students' readiness in the absence of the explicit navigation toolbar, in lieu of the implicit navigational tool, i.e., the story. An immersive educational gamified AR game with two missions has been developed to test the hypothesis. Target users are children 4 to 6 years old. The significance lies in: a) identifying user perceptions towards the AR-gamified story-navigated prototype based on User Experience qualities and Usability Heuristics; b) mapping of User Experience qualities and Usability Heuristics for the preliminary study of cognitive load in immersive learning environments; c) assessing the effectiveness of the story as anchor to shaping mental models, and AR in balancing 3 types of cognition; and d) implications to the design of computational thinking-human-computer interaction scaffolds for immersive AR learning environments. Possibly, with feedback-driven weighted criteria, systems can dynamically assemble ontological changes in scenarios and objects, balance or distribute embodied/embedded cognitive load, personalize paths and mediate flow.