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Experiential Design/ Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Task 1: Trending Experience
Content
Week 1: Module breakdown and Introduction to Experiential Design.
Week 2: Lecture on User Journey Map.
Week 3: Lecture/Tutorial on Unity user controls and UI (Buttons)
Week 4: Was absent due to being sick.
Instructions
Task 1: Trending Experience
Students are given series of exercises that explore the current, popular
trend in the market to give them better understanding of the technologies
and the knowledge in creating content for those technologies. Students will
conduct research and experiment to find out features and limitation which
will later allows them to make decision on which technologies they should
proceed with in their final project.
Week 1: AR Mockup
Imagine the scenario in either of the two places. What would the AR experience
be and what extended visualization can be useful? What do you want the user to
feel?
The three places included are the: shopping mall, kitchen and gym.
Chosen Scenario: Gym
When I brainstormed, I realized AR has a lot of potential uses in a gym
setting. It could gamify your fitness experience by creating targets for you
to hit. Another use is tracking your health stats (heart rate, calories,
distance ran). You could also use it to scan gym equipment to learn how to use
that machine.
Personally, I would love an AR that tells me how to use specific gym machines
and equipment. My idea is that users see a pop up with information about the
equipment and they can click to see a 3D example/ instructional video. When
designing, I made sure to keep in mind that the interface shouldn't be
overcrowded and simple enough so that everything is visible to the user.
When users point their camera to the gym machines, they get pop up displays
for each machine. They can then click the information button to learn more
about the machine. Users can also click a 3D demo button to show an example of
how to use the machine. People who don't go to the gym often feel nervous with
all the unfamiliar machine, scared to use them the wrong way. I
want the users to feel well informed and confident to use any machine at the
gym.
Below is my final AR Mockup.
Fig. 1.1 Pop Up Windows, Week 1 (24/09/2024)
Fig. 1.2 Information Window, Week 1 (24/09/2024)
Fig. 1.3 3D Demo, Week 1 (24/09/2024)
Week 2: Journey Map
In class, we had a group activity to create a user journey map for a place
of our choice. We had to identify gain points, pain points, and solutions
utilizing AR. Our group chose to do a journey map for H&M in Midvalley.
The final Journey Map is below.
Fig. 2.1 H&M Journey Map, Week 2 (01/10/2024)
Week 2: Unity Marker Based AR Experience
Following the
tutorial video
given to us, we were tasked to install and upload the Vuforia package to
Unity. Then add an image target to the database. I chose to use a picture
of a postcard I had. Mr Razif recommended that images should have a rating
above 3 stars so that the AR camera can easily recognize them.
Fig. 2.2 Image Target, Week 2 (07/10/2024)
After that, we had to add a 3D Object on an Image Target. At first, the 3D
object was having trouble staying on the image target when I tested it on
camera. Later I realized that I needed to make the 3D Object a child of
the image target for it to work.
Fig. 2.3 3D Object on Image Target, Week 2 (07/10/2024)
Fig. 2.4 Video on Image Target, Week 2 (07/10/2024)
Week 3: User Controls and UI (Buttons)
Following the
tutorial video, we continued the previous exercise in which we created a marker-based
AR experience. Our task was to create 3 pages: Menu, AR Scene, and
Credits. We also needed to create buttons to let users navigate between
pages.
To create a screen you go to Game Object > UI > Panel. Then you
can adjust the properties like color and opacity from the panel. To
create a button you go to Game Object > UI > Button. At
first, it was hard to get used to the interface of Unity but you get the
hang of it after some practice. Following the instructions, I created 3
pages: Menu, AR Scene, and Credits.
Fig. 3.1 Menu Page, Week 3 (14/10/2024)
Fig. 3.2 Menu Page, Week 3 (14/10/2024)
Fig. 3.3 Credit Page, Week 3 (14/10/2024)
We then needed to make the buttons functional by using C Sharp Script. To create a script you go to Assets > Create > c#script. It's important to name the file first before clicking enter, otherwise, it could produce an error. I named the file "ChangeScenes" and then followed the instructions for the rest of the code, which you can see below.
Fig. 3.4 Code to switch scenes, Week 3 (14/10/2024)
Fig. 3.5 Adding the function to button, Week 3 (14/10/2024)
Fig. 3.6 Demo showing the buttons working, Week 3 (14/10/2024)
Following the instructions for part 2, I added the cube animation. I then added a play and stop button to switch between the two animations.
Fig. 3.7 Cube Animation, Week 3 (14/10/2024)
Week 4: AR Experience (Markerless)
Following the
tutorial video, we were tasked to create a Markerless AR Experience. To add a
ground plane finder you go to vuforia engine > ground plane
> plane finder. To create the ground plane stage yo go to
vuforia engine > ground plane > ground plane stage. You then
drop the ground plane stage to the anchor stage in the plane
finder. We added a 3D cube to the plane.
Fig. 4.1 3D Cube, Week 4 (20/10/2024)
Fig. 4.2 Unable to connect to my device, Week 4 (20/10/2024)
I edited the build settings according to the video but was
unable to connect to my device. When testing using the ground
plane emulator given on vuforia the laptop camera was able to
recognize and show the cube.
Fig. 4.3 Demo using Ground Plane Emulator, Week 4 (20/10/2024)
AR Project Proposal
Experiential Design Proposal by REEMA ARIF HAMZAdiv>
Video Presentation
Fig 5.1 AR Project Proposal Video
Feedback
Week 1-4: No feedback given.
Week 5: The gardening AR has potential you could go further into the AR features. For example it could show a health bar and give indications when to water the plants. Plants are a bit difficult because you would need to use AI to learn what the plant looks like so the camera can recognize it. For this module though a proof of concept is sufficient. The Art AR is also good, the LRT Map AR has been attempted by other students previously but none of them were quite good.
Reflection
Experience
The weekly exercises really helped me understand more about Augmented Reality and how to use Unity. Before this I had only used AR apps maybe a couple of times, it's usually an extra thing to like a museum or art experience. Now exploring it further I realize AR has lots of potential uses which are pretty interesting. The first exercise with Gym AR is one I would love to actually use in the gym, because I am one of those people who gets nervous around unfamiliar machines. Unity was a bit hard to grasp at first but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it now.
For my AR Project Proposal I brainstormed a lot of different ideas, I chose ones I would have fun designing and would be interesting for me. The gardening AR was inspired by my recent wish to get a new indoor plant. The Art AR was inspired by my love of Sargent's oil paintings, I just think they're so amazing to look at. Interestingly enough his art style wasn't that special at the time, it was really similar to what they taught at art schools. The last LRT Map AR was inspired by my daily commute and finding hard to see the board and see which stop I'm at.
Observation
I noticed that you have to be really aware not to overcrowd the screen when designing for AR. Just keep it simple and intuitive for users to see and navigate. While I was designing the mockups for the proposal, I really played around with different layouts to see what would work best.
Finding
I found that Unity is a bit of an overwhelming interface to use. I've used softwares like 3dsmax before which felt more smoother to me, but I think it's because there's so many functions involved in Unity. We're also learning JavaScript in Application Design 2, which I think will be used when coding for Unity as well. It's a bit tough to be learning both at the same time, so I hope I can pick it up fast.
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