The fifteenth edition of LuBeC (Lucca Beni Culturali), a key Italian event where institutions and businesses meet to discuss innovation and technology for cultural heritage, has just come to a close.
Hi.Stories, a start-up specialising in digital solutions for cultural enhancement, took part with a talk by our founder, Luna Meli, in the panel InterAction cultural experience, dedicated to promoting local areas through interactive and emotional experiences based on digital storytelling.
The talk presented Sicily Histories as a case study in participatory territorial enhancement: a model that combines storytelling, gamification and the involvement of local communities to create innovative cultural tourism experiences.
The full text of the talk is published in the LuBeC 2019 proceedings, and the presentation slides are available on the event website.
Below is a brief abstract of the talk.
What sets Sicily Histories apart from other mobile tourist guides is its use of storytelling and gamification.
These communication techniques increase engagement during museum visits or while exploring an area, building an emotional narrative and using game dynamics linked to the visit.Sicily Histories is built around a geolocated 3D map where users can see:
– points of interest (POIs) of general tourist interest, such as info points;
– commercial POIs;
– historical and artistic POIs.
The real innovation lies in the historical and artistic POIs.
In addition to a standard “guide” section, they are presented through the adventures of characters who create an overarching narrative frame, thematically connecting cultural sites that may be geographically distant from one another.
Each itinerary is visually characterised in a unique way. For example, classical geometric ceramics identify archaeological POIs, while knights’ shields symbolise the medieval period.Storytelling is therefore both visual – in the user interface and the design of the characters – and narrative, through the way itineraries are structured.
The other central aspect of Sicily Histories is gaming. At each POI, players take part in skill-based games, augmented reality experiences or quizzes, earning rewards that can be used locally. This creates a virtuous loop in which the app becomes not only a tool for discovery and interpretation, but also a driver of return visits to the area. Local businesses can promote special offers in the app, presented as prizes to users, strengthening visitors’ trust in participating shops and venues.New ways of connecting with the local socio-economic fabric are also being developed by turning commercial POIs into game POIs: businesses become stops along the game route, amplifying Sicily Histories’ promotional potential.
But the model presented is also virtuous for the territory and for young people. Hi.Stories has built a network of partnerships with schools, social promotion associations and local authorities. These partnerships take shape in custom-designed itineraries and, through work-based learning programmes, in projects where students can design tourist routes using digital tools, working directly inside the app.
Sicily Histories is an open, scalable system that can be updated in real time. Thanks to geolocation, POIs can be added in any region, creating local stories that start in Sicily, reach as far as the Aosta Valley and even cross national borders.
Luna Meli