Augmented Reality Aquarium
This is an example of how I work and approach tasks.
The project for the augmented reality course was to use Unity to generate an android application which would allow the user to place and alter digital objects into a physical space through their phone. I had never used Unity before, so a lot of work was ahead of me and my group.
Step 1: Get the idea
Step 3: Designing basic interactions
This was a project to display how our skills evolved - so the content of the project was redundant. To us this meant to have fun and decided to do something playful and potentially a bit stupid: Make the world an aquarium where fish swim around you.
Having found existing fish objects, we started experimenting with placing them in AR. Interactions and design was kept to a minimum.
To get into the spirit of things, I quickly designed a fish icon to work as an indicator.
By now, we decided on the minimum interactions to be made in the system. A user would be able to place different kinds of fish, kill them (remove them) wither one at a time or all.
To maintain a minimalistic style each interaction was illustrated with a simple icon.
We were not ready to explore Unity by having fun with the system. All following explorations were initiated by the question: “What if…?”
What if the fish could change colour?
What if the shark could eat the other fish?
What if a mine blew up?
What if the fish could dance?
What if the fish get attracted to food?
Step 5: Reflection
This is the point where the projects would usually be reflected upon to identify which interactions should be implemented in a final version.
This project ended here - but has since been named as a good example of how to make a silly approach to the project.
Step 2: Concept testing
We wanted a pop-up menu to enable picking different kinds of fish, and made quick tests with fellow students to learn if the layout was readable.
It was not good - so a quick change was made to inform the user of which fish was being placed
Step 4: Adding fun
Each “What if…?” encouraged exploring limitations by including new elements into the system such as altering or animating objects, controlling type interactions and even creating custom objects.