How was yoAR movie?
Concept
“How was yoAR movie?” is an AR experience to reflect on the movie with enjoyment and immersion after watching movies at the cinema, especially for solo moviegoers.
Keywords
AR, cinema, interaction
Skills
Unity3D, AR prototyping, User research, App design, Iterative prototyping
Problem Definition
The goal of this project is to explore and improve the current interaction at the cinema through design intervention.
I started to observe the interactions of the visitors at the cinema at different times, days, and genres. After more observation, interviews, and card sorting methods, I decided to focus on the after-watching movie experience at the cinema for solo moviegoers.
Design Goal
Through the design intervention, I wanted to make the solo moviegoers reflect on the movies with enjoyment and immersion after watching movies at the cinema.
The desired interaction vision was that the solo moviegoers to feel enjoyable, creative, and immersive, like “Playing violin on the street like street performers”.
Concept Ideation
I tested several concepts in an iterative process. With a simple and quick test, I checked whether Augment Reality is appropriate technology, whether I should include characters, and what is the level of interaction required for sustainable engagement. Unity and Vuforia were used for prototyping the AR app.
Multiple rounds of concept tests led to a final concept: ‘Save emotions with a dancing AR character’.
Final Prototype
I adjusted and polished the final prototype to fit the movie screening at the moment.
If a person chooses an emoji that best reflects his emotion, the AR character dances along with the OST according to the selection. You can also see how other people think about the movie from other characters’ dance moves.
Evaluation
It was unfortunate that cinemas did not allow to test the prototype for commercial reasons. Therefore, I had to set up a cinema-like environment for the evaluation.
Scores in four categories [Enjoyable, Creative, Reflective, Immersive] all increased after using my prototype, with a 60 percent increase in the ‘reflective’ component. The effect was intensified when two solo moviegoers, who don’t know each other, interact with each other.
