The Way It Used to Be: Exploring Cultural Heritage through the Augmented Reality Story of a Neighborhood Soul Food Restaurant

This article documents the planning, creation, and user testing of a situated mobile story using the ARIS platform. The game, “Getting a Job at Nikki’s Place,” focuses on a neighborhood restaurant in Orlando, Florida and the life of its current owner, Nick Aiken. Our team used the historical and community aspects of soul food to connect Aiken’s story to the broader story of urban revitalization in the Parramore neighborhood. This article illustrates the knowledge our team gained from the experience of mobile storytelling and articulates it into a call for educators to create digital stories with their own students