Stage X
All the square is a stage.
My Role
Duration
4 weeks,
October 2021
UX design, Unity scenes building,
Modeling & Animation
Tools
Unity, Maya,
Blender, Figma
Team
Zhiyue Wang, Yu Cheng,
Penny Lin, Yiying Wu
01. OVERVIEW \
'Stage X' is an AR immersive event designed for the tourists and local communities to experience the beauty of San Francisco.
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By interacting and scanning the cut-up pieces of the SF map placed on the tiles, a corresponding landmark model and a sound effect will appear. After the audience has completed their scanning tour, they will be randomly awarded a landmark model (like opening a mystery box) together with the compiled music of their journey as souvenirs.
Next, the participants or audiences can scan the Dewey monument to discover what others received. It will show up like a tree with all the awards hanging on it when scanning. At the end of this journey, guests can take a photo with the virtual SF tree and share it with their friends or social media to commemorate this event.
02. USER RESEARCH \
LOCATION
Union Square, 333 Post St, San Francisco, CA 94108
SITE ANALYSE
Economy
Identity
Inclusion
Vibrancy
After Union Square was first built in 1850, it has undergone four large-scale renovations. The spatial layout is gradually suitable to the lives of citizens: monuments, underground parking lots, and large-scale hard paving renovations. The design of different stages affects the activities in the space. What kind of possibility AR could intervene in such urban landmark spaces, and what kind of response could it bring?
USER INTERVIEW
We interviewed 5 local residents and tourists of San Francisco. And asked them to draw their cultural map of San Francisco.
TASK 1: Draw a map of San Francisco using a single letter-sized paper in which you detail as many of the elements of San Francisco that come to mind.
TASK 2: Feel free to illustrate the maps with monuments, squares, culture, streets, or whatever elements have meaning to you. Your sketch should not resemble a tourist map of San Francisco, but express your own personal view of San Francisco.
" My San Francisco Map "
How might we bring San Francisco culture to life to visitors?
How might we leave a great memory on the visitors of union square?
How might we help people express themselves at Union Square in the heart of San Francisco?
03. PROBLEM STATEMENT \
04. IDEATION \
Scan
Mystery Box
SF Song
Listen
SF Tree
Rotate
Scale
Change Color
Decorate
1
2
3
Users scan the San Francisco map on the square tiles. Sounds and markers representing a region would appear. The vivid display of the San Francisco culture of each region would be displayed in this way.
People can participate in customizing the color, angle, and size of a model and decorate it to the virtual tree with visitors worldwide.
Visitors can download the music sequence generated when they scan the floor tiles and take home the unique sound of San Francisco. They can also take photos in Union Square with the virtual SF tree.
05. PROTOTYPING & TESTING
To verify the product's usability, we made physical models of squares, floor tiles, and monumental towers to demonstrate the AR effect regularly. And invited users to do usability tests at each development stage. The testing prototype and insights is listed as follows:
USABILITY TESTING INSIGHTS
Reconsider the form of trees: Look for tree species that can represent San Francisco.
Reconsider the user journey: Provide a smooth and easy-to-use user tasks flow.
Redesign the product interface: According to the user's gestures and habits of using the iPad.
Let users customize their models: Enhance participation and interaction.
Build connections between users: Users may see the models left by previous visitors.
06. IMPLEMENTATION /
SCENE BUILDING
San Francisco Culture Elements
San Francisco Culture Tree
TECHNOLOGY STRUCTURE
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This AR application was built by Vuforia SDK and interacted by using gestures. There are four main scenes, which are connected through Unity's UGUI management. We used Vufuria's image target and model target functions as the two main interactive pages.
We also embedded some independent functions in these two modules, including gesture interaction, model customization, camera functions, etc. to enhance the fluency of the entire application and enrich the user experience.
07. FINAL PRODUCT /
We have three main function buttons on the homepage that redirect users t Sounds of SF, Mystery Box, and SF Tree functions. We use UGUI to enable controls that allow users to turn off and return to the main page at any time.
Scene Manage
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Target Image SF Map
SF sound is the first step in the user journey. We built a database of 16 maps representing 16 different parts of San Francisco cultures through Vuforia. Each map will identify its corresponding models and sounds. When the user scans one or more images, it will produce rich visual and auditory effects. Some parts of the sounds are collected locally in San Francisco.
Finger Gesture Scales & Rotates
After playing with SF models, the user will randomly get one of the 16 models as a reward by clicking the finish button. The user needs to hold the iPad to find it around. Users could use two fingers to zoom in/out the model and use one finger to rotate it.
Target Model SF Tree
We built a 1:1 monument model of union square on the SF Tree page and put it into Vuforia for training. When the tablet recognizes the monument, it will virtually grow a tree model representing the Tree of the SF Culture.
08. REFLECTION \
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