دانشگاه اصفهان جغرافیا و برنامه ریزی محیطی 2008-5362 37 2 2026 06 22 Perceiving Historical-Tourism Places Using Augmented Reality: A Case Study of Saray-e Mirza Jalil in the Historical Bazaar of Tabriz تحلیل کیفی تجربۀ مخاطبان در ادراک مکان‌های تاریخی - گردشگری با استفاده از واقعیت افزوده؛ مطالعۀ موردی سرای میرزا جلیل در بازار تاریخی تبریز 29 60 30706 10.22108/gep.2026.147585.1760 FA الناز ابی زاده ستادیار گروه معماری و شهرسازی، دانشگاه ملی مهارت، تهران، ایران Journal Article 2025 12 01 Abstract With the proliferation of emerging technologies, Augmented Reality (AR) has the potential to redefine the way humans interact with historical–tourism places by serving as an experiential mediator. This study qualitatively explored audiences' experiences of perceiving Iran's historical–tourism places within an AR context, focusing on Saray-e Mirza Jalil, a heritage building in Tabriz Bazaar, as a case study. Adopting a qualitative approach, the research involved the development of a practical AR prototype for the selected heritage site to create an experimental setting. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed by using thematic analysis, encompassing 3 stages of coding: basic, organizing, and overarching themes. The findings indicated that AR transformed the visitor experience from a static, information-based encounter into a multidimensional, dynamic, analytical, and participatory process. The thematic analysis revealed 3 overarching categories: "Empowering the observation–perception–learning chain", "Enriching emotional–imaginative and cognitive experiences", and "Intelligent interaction and active user engagement". The results suggested that AR enhanced users' analytical place perception by improving architectural–historical reading, guiding attention, and facilitating situated learning, while simultaneously deepening cognitive and emotional experiences through excitement, presence, and gamified elements. Moreover, interactive and personalized features shifted users from passive observers to active, self-directed participants. This research extended the understanding of human–place relationships in the context of emerging technologies and demonstrated that AR can enhance spatial literacy, place perception, and cultural experience. These findings held practical implications for environmental planning, cultural heritage management, and smart tourism development. Keywords: Augmented Reality (AR), Place Perception, Audience Experience, Cultural Heritage, Saray-e Mirza Jalil, Environmental Planning. Introduction Iranian cities endowed with rich historical and cultural heritage have long been recognized as prominent cultural tourism destinations. However, the true value of these places extends beyond the mere presence of historical artifacts; audience experience and place perception play a pivotal role in effectively leveraging these assets. Today, technological advances and widespread access to digital tools, particularly Augmented Reality (AR), offer novel opportunities to enhance tourist experiences and represent historical places in innovative ways. Nevertheless, many studies focus primarily on the technical, interactive, and marketing aspects of these technologies, often overlooking the cultural, identity-related, semantic, and multisensory dimensions of user experience. AR has the potential to transform tourists' interaction with historical places from passive observation into an active, multidimensional, and meaningful experience. By integrating multimedia information, providing virtual guidance, and enabling personalization, AR allows for a deeper understanding of the historical structure, architecture, and layers of meaning embedded in a place. Yet, the gap between technological capabilities and actual user engagement underscores the need to analyze audience experience and identify factors influencing the adoption of emerging technologies and interaction with them. This study aimed to qualitatively analyze audience experience in perceiving Iran's historical–tourism places with a specific focus on Saray-e Mirza Jalil, a heritage building in Tabriz Bazaar, as a case study. It addressed gaps in prior research across 3 dimensions: 1) identifying the structure of user experience and how passive observation transforms into active, meaningful engagement; 2) examining the role of AR in historical representation and enhancing architectural and semantic comprehension; and 3) analyzing the effects of interaction, active participation, and cognitive–emotional engagement with historical places. Through a qualitative approach and thematic analysis, this study investigated multidimensional user experiences encompassing spatial perception, emotions, imagination, and active participation within an AR context. The findings contribute to understanding human–place relationships while informing smart tourism policy, environmental planning, cultural heritage management, and practical strategies for enhancing audience experience at historical–tourism places. Materials & Methods This study employed a qualitative research method to analyze audience experience of AR application in perceiving Iran's historical–tourism places. To create an experimental setting, a practical AR prototype was developed and implemented at Saray-e Mirza Jalil, a historical building in Tabriz Bazaar, featuring interactive and informational capabilities. These included layered architectural explanations, historical maps and documents, representations of historical figures and digital guides, 3D models, and self-guided tours. Using mobile devices, users could overlay digital layers onto the physical environment, experiencing a hybrid, interactive, and interpretive engagement with both the physical place and augmented data. The research population consisted of visitors to Saray-e Mirza Jalil, with purposive sampling employed. 30 participants were selected based on prior experience with historical places, willingness to participate, and readiness to use AR technology. Sampling continued until theoretical saturation was reached, meaning no new data emerged in the final interviews and core patterns of user experience were established. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, focusing on 5 dimensions: cognitive (narrative understanding, historical comprehension, architectural interpretation), emotional (excitement, sense of presence, imagination, mental engagement, cultural pride), spatial (place perception, attention to architectural elements, environmental legibility), behavioral–interactive (technology use, ease of interaction, type of user engagement), and evaluative (priorities, values, overall assessment). Thematic analysis was conducted in 3 stages: (1) coding semantic units related to users' experiences into basic themes; (2) grouping similar basic themes into conceptual categories to form organizing themes; and (3) integrating organizing themes into overarching themes, thereby creating a comprehensive framework for analysis and conclusions. To ensure credibility and reliability, all coding stages were reviewed by a second coder to minimize individual bias and each data segment was confirmed or adjusted through consensus. Additionally, findings were triangulated by using direct interview excerpts and field notes. Inter-coder reliability was calculated by using Cohen's Kappa coefficient, yielding a value of 0.84, which indicated substantial agreement. Theoretical saturation was employed as a key validity indicator to ensure consistency, reproducibility, and stability of themes. This methodology enabled a comprehensive analysis of multidimensional user experiences—encompassing perception, emotion, imagination, and active participation—while clarifying the role of AR in historical representation, architectural and semantic comprehension, increased engagement, and cognitive–emotional bonding with cultural heritage. Research Findings Qualitative analysis revealed that AR application at Iran's historical–tourism places created a multidimensional, active, and interactive visitor experience. 3 primary dimensions of user experience emerged: "Empowering the Observation–Perception–Learning Chain", "Enriching Emotional–Imaginative and Cognitive Experiences", and "Intelligent Interaction and Active User Engagement". These interwoven dimensions explained how user experiences were formed at AR-enhanced historical places and could inform environmental planning strategies and smart place management. Empowering the Observation–Perception–Learning Chain:AR transformed user experiences from static, information-based observation into an analytical, participatory process. Users gained a clearer understanding of structural logic and hidden layers of historical buildings, directing attention to architectural details and historical developments. This included analytical comprehension of spatial and architectural aspects, enhanced active observation, experiential learning, and clarity of presented information. Digital layers, 3D models, and multimedia explanations allowed for gradual reconstruction of place understanding and meaningful connection between the building's form and its history without the need for human guides. Enriching Emotional–Imaginative and Cognitive Experiences:AR enhanced emotional attachment, creating a layered, imaginative experience. Users reported excitement, engagement, presence, cultural pride, and a sense of history coming alive. AR also enabled mental reconstruction of past environments, generating a quasi-documentary, creative experience. This interactive dimension fostered curiosity, motivation, sustained learning, and deeper cognitive engagement with the place. Intelligent Interaction and Active User Engagement:AR empowered users to personalize viewpoints, scale, lighting, and informational layers. Features like bookmarking, note-taking, interacting with digital characters, and 3D modeling transformed users from passive observers into active agents, supporting independent learning, spatial–analytical skill development, and creative interaction with the place. These capabilities could inform experience-driven environmental planning and smart tourism management. Overall, findings indicated that AR elevated visits to historical places beyond mere observation and digital information consumption into dynamic, analytical, participatory, and meaningful experiences. Users interacted actively with places while co-creating comprehensive, multilayered experiences encompassing history, culture, architecture, and meaning. This experience could serve as an effective tool for smart tourism planning, heritage management, and improving visitor experience quality. Discussion of Results & Conclusion This study demonstrated that AR as a multilayered experiential tool could transform human engagement with historical places, space, and cultural heritage. Qualitative analysis revealed that user experiences formed a network of spatial perception, imagination, learning, participation, and emotion while dynamically interacting with the physical and historical context of the place. AR served 3 fundamental functions: 1) empowering the observation–perception–learning chain through analytical comprehension, attention guidance, revealing hidden layers, and situated learning; 2) enriching emotional, imaginative, and cognitive experience through emotional presence, mental reconstruction of the past, and creativity; and 3) enabling intelligent interaction and active user participation with technology. These functions converted static, information-based visits into analytical, participatory, dynamic, and meaningful experiences. This study confirmed previous findings while addressing gaps in the literature, particularly in 3 areas: (1) elucidating identity, cultural, and semantic layers of historical experience with AR; (2) explaining perceptual–analytical mechanisms in place reading; and (3) clarifying the link between digital experience and visitor behavior at Iran's historical–tourism places. AR enhanced users' comprehension from descriptive observation to analytical interpretation, allowing deeper understanding of spatial structure, historical layers, and architectural logic—a key aspect of spatial literacy and place perception, central to cultural landscape and human geography studies. Emotional and imaginative AR experiences strengthened human–place connections and fostered user identity, supporting sustainable tourism and improved environmental experience quality. Active user engagement provided new capacities for smart tourism management, transforming historical places into dynamic, interactive, learning-focused environments aligned with modern planning and heritage management approaches. Practically, these findings can inform smart tourism policy, enhance audience experience, and guide the preservation and promotion of Iran's cultural heritage. Theoretically, emerging technologies like AR are not merely technical tools; they can redefine human–place relationships, place experience, meaning-making, and historical reconstruction. Studying user experience with such technologies enriches theory in human geography, cultural landscape, and place perception, facilitating deeper understanding of human behavior in spatial contexts. Ultimately, AR mediates cognitive and perceptual processes while transforming visits to historical places into dynamic, analytical, participatory, and meaningful experiences, thus highlighting the need for interdisciplinary research in this field. Future studies should explore the spatial, social, cultural, economic, and managerial impacts of AR deployment at urban and regional scales, assessing its role in sustainable tourism development and smart environmental planning. چکیده با گسترش فناوری‌های نوین، واقعیت افزوده به‌عنوان یک واسطه تجربه‌ساز می‌تواند شیوه تعامل انسان با مکان‌های تاریخی - گردشگری را بازتعریف کند. پژوهش حاضر با هدف واکاوی کیفی تجربه مخاطبان در ادراک مکان‌های تاریخی – گردشگری در بستر واقعیت افزوده انجام شده و بر سرای میرزا جلیل، یکی از بناهای تاریخی بازار تبریز، به‌عنوان مطالعه موردی متمرکز است. این پژوهش با اتکا بر رویکرد کیفی و ازطریق مصاحبه‌های نیمه‌ساختاریافته گردآوری شده است. داده‌ها با بهره‌گیری از روش تحلیل مضمون شامل کدگذاری سه‌مرحله‌ای مضامین پایه، سازمان‌دهنده و فراگیر تحلیل شده است. یافته‌ها نشان می‌دهد که واقعیت افزوده تجربه بازدید را از مواجهه‌ای ایستا و اطلاعات‌محور به فرایندی چندبعدی، پویا، تحلیلی و مشارکتی تبدیل می‌کند. تحلیل مضمون، سه مقوله فراگیر شامل «توانمندسازی زنجیره مشاهده، درک و یادگیری»، «غنی‌سازی تجربه احساسی – تخیلی و ذهنی» و «تعامل هوشمند و مشارکت فعال کاربر» را آشکار ساخت. نتایج بیانگر آن است که واقعیت افزوده با ارتقای خوانش کالبدی – تاریخی مکان، هدایت توجه و تسهیل یادگیری موقعیت‌مند، ادراک تحلیلی کاربران را تقویت می‌کند و همزمان از طریق ایجاد هیجان، حس حضور و افزودن عناصر بازی‌وار، تجربه شناختی و احساسی آنان را تعمیق می‌بخشد. علاوه بر این، قابلیت‌های تعاملی و شخصی‌سازی، کاربران را از مشاهده‌گر منفعل به مشارکت‌کننده فعال و خودراهبر تبدیل می‌کند. نتایج پژوهش فهم رابطه انسان – مکان را در بستر فناوری‌های نوظهور، گسترش و نشان می‌دهد واقعیت افزوده می‌تواند فرایندهای سواد فضایی، خوانش مکان و تجربه فرهنگی را ارتقا دهد. این یافته‌ها برای برنامه‌ریزی محیطی، مدیریت میراث فرهنگی و توسعه گردشگری هوشمند دارای دلالت‌های کاربردی مهمی است.

https://gep.ui.ac.ir/article_30706_8d03882b746cc192f8b06a8e3de54730.pdf