CONCEPTS
In this case study, I'm going to present the main concepts of an AR mobile application to collaborate with the immersive ecosystem project at the museum of science. Below are the two concept designs about the features that users could explore in the upcoming application.
My first concept is about AR navigation, users could use the app in the museum, searching the path to their desired exhibition. With Augmented reality path, floating map, brief introduction, and pinned destination with distance. This can provide an immersive experience to visitors.
Just a quick preview of another concept, when users enter the exhibition about the ecosystems on Earth, they can capture the moments via the phone. While they turn on the camera, all major objects would be labeled with icons. The introduction about each project would pop up with blurred windows & audios.
PERSONAS
Before I deep dive into the features and functions of those concepts, allow me to borrow a pair of fresh eyes from one of the users who would have an engaging and immersive experience in the museum with the AR app.
Here's one of our visitors to the museum. Ethan is a high school student, who's interested in science & music. You can imagine he's walking around and looking for the direction to the exhibition. This app has AR navigation, Ethan can look up the phone find the path easily.
When he enters the exhibition, he's amazed by the immersive projection mapping visuals of the ecosystem contents. He turns on the camera, a brief introduction about the immersive ecosystem contents pops up with audios.
Ethan puts on his headphone, the sounds of nature enhance the experiences of this immersive project. He can hear the river flowing, birds chirping, and wind blowing. The app can also add his classmates and friends to his account, they can chat &share pictures or videos in the app. It's getting clear that the upcoming AR application would support this immersive project & provide a more fascinating and engaging experience to the visitors. Our job is to realize those experiences and make them happen.
DESIGN
Here's a quick prototype I developed for the AR navigation in the mobile. As the user setup the destination, it triggers the AR effects on the screen as I mentioned before. A 3D rotate animation would increase the AR experience. The avatar can manage the account for the user, the hover states on the bottom for user status and friends list would bring more interactions.
As stated before, while when users enter the exhibition about the ecosystems on Earth, they can capture the moments via the phone, when they walk closer, the specific object can react to their movement, we can add AR animated stickers for the screen to bring more interesting interactions.
All major objects would be labeled with icons, those icons can give guidance to visitors on how to trigger the reactions of those ecosystem objects. The introduction about each project would pop up with blurred windows & audios, which users can explore more related scientific knowledge within the app, that's sort of the critical feature we needed for the experience.
PRODUCT ROADMAP
Here comes the proposal of the product roadmap, in the whole process of crafting this AR mobile application, we need to collaborate with all of our team members remotely, to determine how users interact with the app, to test animated AR features, to achieve all critical functions, etc. We need to take account of technology and lighting constraints. How to make it more engaging and better within the timeline, that's the thing we need to figure out.
CONCLUSION
There would be more cool and engaging experiences added to this museum navigation AR application. As I stated before, a polished and great product needs collaborative work and effective cooperation with other R&D members. I would willing to give it a shot in the future to see if this concept could really be a launched application. That would be super exciting!