Adapting Constructivist Grounded Theory in the Design of Extended Reality Applications: A Novel Approach to Enhance Cultural Tourism and Actual Visits to the Fortification Architecture of Aitoloakarnania, Greece

This study presents the application of Constructivist Grounded Theory in the design of extended reality applications within the Digicult project aimed at enhancing the visibility and accessibility of Aitoloakarnania's unique fortifications. The project developed three primary applications: virtual tours, a virtual reality, and an augmented reality application. Requirements’ analysis was conducted using an adapted version of Grounded Theory, leading to well-defined, user-centric requirements and clear user stories. These user stories facilitated the development of technologically advanced, functional, and engaging applications. Simultaneously, the Virtual Street Museum project, sharing the same core development team, aimed to develop an interactive mobile application that provides personalised cultural tourist routes using augmented reality to enhance the user's visiting experience. Unlike Digicult, Virtual Street Museum did not use the adapted version of Grounded Theory. Both projects followed a hybrid Agile/Stage-Gate development methodology, supporting iterative cycles and external collaborations. This study focuses on the initial phases of the development methodology, specifically the requirements analysis, and how Constructivist Grounded Theory can support the procedure and add reliability and quality to the main requirements of a project, as tested in the Digicult–Aitoloakarnania research project. The implications of this study are also discussed.