The design heuristics are designed in order to support a rapid conceptualization of game ideas for location-based mobile games. They were derived through the analysis of existing location-based mobile games in collaboration with Carmelo Ardito from the University of Bari.

The heuristics were derived through the analysis of three location-based mobile games for informal learning in places of cultural value. The games are:

• Explore!, a game for the archaeological park of the roman city Egnazia, Italy,
• MuseumScrabble, a game for the Solomos Museum, a local history museum in Zakynthos, Greece,
• Frequency 1550, a game for the city-center of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands.

The method that was followed for acquiring the heuristics is documented in the following publications:

• Ardito, C., Lanzilotti, R., Raptis, D., Sintoris, C., Yiannoutsou, N., Avouris, N., Costabile, M.F.: Designing Pervasive Games for Learning. Design, User Experience, and Usability. Theory, Methods, Tools and Practice. pp. 99–108. Springer Berlin Heidelberg (2011).
• Ardito, C., Sintoris, C., Raptis, D., Yiannoutsou, N., Avouris, N., Costabile, M.F.: Design Guidelines for Location-based Mobile Games for Learning. International Conference on Social Applications for Lifelong Learning. p. 96 (2010).