Educators comprise a significant number of ARIS authors whose motivation is to experiment with new pedagogical practices connecting place to curriculum.

Most designers are introduced to ARIS through playing a game or attending a presentation and fall under 3 categories:

• independent exploration

• participation in an organized workshop or design jam

• collaborations funded with grants or contracts

Designers using ARIS have increased since it first became a research protoype in 2010. The visuals below show steadily increasing usership since then across a number of countries.