Enriching E-Participation through Augmented Reality: First Results of a Qualitative Study

Recent disputes over public construction projects show that the public is interested in urban development. When construction projects lack communication about its impact, agenda and costs, citizens might feel overheard and protests may arise. As a consequence, trust in public administration and politics could suffer serious damage. Following the idea of digital government, it is crucial not only to replicate and digitize established participation procedures, but rather to include new possibilities that e-participation offers. In this article, we present preliminary results of a qualitative study on using augmented reality for e-participation. Based on the study’s results, we derive metarequirements for an e-participation application employing this technology. Interestingly, our empirical findings suggest that users only seek information via the application up to a certain level of participation.