ARTFRAME
ArtFrame is a smart glasses service for enhancing the experience of street art exploration using AR technology.
THE PROBLEM
Street art is exciting. But exploring street art could be challenging. How can we use AR technology to improve the experience of street art exploration, making it more accessible, findable and immersive?
London is an incubation of street art and people from all over the world visit this one of the biggest open air gallery. Street art is omnipresent and often reflects daily life in the society. Some people are curious about it but they couldn’t find a way to approach the story behind it. Therefore, we design a wearable technology system to allow the audience to find exploring street art a pleasurable experience and share their knowledge.
Artframe adds a digital layer over the physical street art medium, through AR glasses. It empowers tourists, street art fans and creators to explore their surroundings and contribute their knowledge to the framing of a scenery that is always new.
HIGH LEVEL TIMELINE
This is a three months project conducted between October and December 2016.
MAKE OF THE TEAM
Kai-Shing Hwang
Olena Bulygina
Christian Contemori
Wing Shan Sum
KEY GOAL
To design a digital platform for street art community to create and curate content.
MY ROLE
I was the user researcher in the team. My responsibility was to conduct user research and evaluate the design through user testing.
As a user researcher in the team, my main responsibility was to make sure the design meets users requirements. I was highly involved in the design stage, working closely with the designers in the team.
In the research stage, I conducted one-on-one user interviews and field observation. Participants including tourists, street art fans and artists. I structured the research plan and made a report of insights from user studies which set the foundation of this project.
During the design stage, I built the prototype and conducted usability tests to test the design concept with users. By applying Wizard of Oz techniques and think aloud protocol, I gathered feedbacks from participants, that helped the team improve the product.
UNDERSTANDING THE USER
Street art fans are facing difficulties such as losing directions and hard to research. These difficulties happens due to the nature of street art, that is, serendipitous and ephemeral.
Key Findings
1. Street art is hard to research because it is non-transparent and underground
2. Art on street is serendipitous and it disappears anytime
3. People lose direction during exploration
4. Audience do not know the value of art and the artist such as skills and stories
Based on the findings from user research, we decided to create a useful tool to help street art fans explore an artistic city collaboratively with others. Our design keeps the spirit of the community and adds value through a digital device and a platform that closely adhere to the community inclinations; it supports their personal way of moving around, discovering and capturing while being immersed in a communal reality such that of street art.
Field Study and Interviews
In the research stage, I explored the topic, street art, by participating a street art tour in east London, observing how people interact with artworks, and interviewing artists and art fans. The results of our research gave me insights of the experience of street art exploration.
BREAKING DOWM THE PROCESS
The project followed a UCD process including user research, conceptual design, detail design and evaluation. To improve the product based on user feedbacks, there were two iterations in the process.
In the research stage, I explored the topic, street art, by participating a street art tour in east London, observing how people interact with artworks, and interviewing artists and art fans. The results of our research gave us insights of the experience of street art exploration.
In the concept design stage, we developed persona, user requirements, user journey, storyboards, paper prototypes to visualise the concept. In the detail design stage, the wireframe of the system were created, which are the Smart Glasses (the mobile device) and the Central Screen (the static device).
To evaluate and improve the usability of the product, I directed two iteration of user testing. During the testing, participants think aloud and interacted with paper prototypes and clickable wireframes. With a follow up interview in each test, I was able to collect insightful feedbacks to help the team improve the product.
Personas
The main persona was Chloe, a curious street tourist. The secondary persona was Rory, a local street art fan, who is willing to share his knowledge. The third persona is an artist.
Prototypes
Different shape of smart glass prototypes were built to test the usability of the design concept.
KEY FEATURES OF ARTFRAME
Central Screen
The journey begins here, where smart glasses and zines can be collected. People can find common preferences by browsing others’ experiences to build a custom map.
Smart Glasses
Street art is no longer inaccessible and difficult to find or understand; without interference, the smart glasses augment users perception and ability to capture art.
Interactive Guide
Access insider knowledge in real time from real artists; users select in which way want to interact with the artwork or check what fellow Artframers are discovering right now.
Zine
The zine is for you to keep memories and continue discovering within the community; It is the connection with a constantly changing art scene and its creative inhabitants.
API
API supports creation even when the street art stroll is over. For example, users can write an article on their blogs and link it to Artframe. New comments appear, enriching that recent artwork one has discovered
REFLECTION
I enjoyed working in a multi-disciplinary team and learning from my teammates. I am very proud that this project was the finalist in the UXD competition UX Sprints 2017.
This project was a great learning experience for me. I learned to follow user-centred design process to build design concept from user research insights. By applying different design and evaluation methods, I learned the importance of iterations in UX design. I also challenged myself to design a system on an unfamiliar plat form like smart glasses instead of mobil app. To sum up, this project was a great chance for me as a user researcher to be involved in the full design process.