Augmented Reality Showcase + Wayfinding App - Anna Czoski

Augmented Reality Showcase: Wayfinding Design

The international showcase AUGMENT Seattle featured local and global augmented reality (AR) artwork.

Over 5K visitors engaged in-person with the artworks over the 17 day outdoor public installation, with 186K global digital engagements.

Mobile phone showing an Augmented Reality artwork by Nadine Kolodziey - entitled: New Nature Spawning, Photo Credit: Yuliya Bruk

The Challenge

1. Grab attention of passersby and convert to active engagement with the AR artwork

Create a coherent wayfinding strategy: on-site and digital
Curate window signage placement and make steps clear of how to view the AR artwork
Direct digital wayfinding touchpoints to 1. get people to the location 2. Maintain engagement

2. Identify market segmentation to drive audience in-person attendance.

Create local audience for advertising media buy
Share segmentation with Instagram marketing team
Create and run my own ads on facebook for hyperlocal focus

3. Prove success of this new method of showcasing AR artwork for new business opportunities and product viability.

Set up mechanisms to validate successful engagement
Measure engagement at touch points: QR Code opens
Measure performance of individual artwork interaction: Dwell time, Shares, Impressions

Background

Centered in the tech-hub of South Lake Union (home to Amazon and satellite campuses of Apple, Google, and more), the Future Arts exhibition engaged residents, tourists, creative digital thinkers and technology enthusiasts in digital storytelling that explored the theme of The New Nature–blending the familiar urban backdrop with digitally altered worlds.

Timeframe

17 day showcase

August 2022

Location

South Lake Union - primary hub

Downtown Seattle

Pioneer Square

Team

Future Arts team

Houdini Studio

My Role

Future Arts CoFounder

UX Design Direction

Data Capture Lead

Leading a tour with ASL interpreting (right).

Grab Attention and Engage

Overall Signage Placement

The vinyl signage along Evoke's windows anchored the showcase in an exhibition format with a description about the pop-up activation and credits. The larger Future Arts banner signaled to passersby that artworks were waiting to be discovered.

About the outdoor showcase - vinyl print design didactic

Strong brand presence

The throughway of 9th and Thomas held a concentration of 9 artworks.

I used consistency in the window vinyl appearance so that viewers walking by could easily find each artwork.

I created the layout for each Artists Blob (example to the right) and collaborated with Future Arts ECD on placement on-site.

Every ARtwork Unique

Each artist leveraged the AR platform differently to tell their story. The 3D artworks were anchored to the world via methods: target tracker, world placement (plane detection), or face/hand/body detection.

In currents, pictured below, Alina Nazmeeva and Alex Kosnett invite the viewer to contemplate the story of salmon lifecycles and their ecological role that made the lush evergreen terrain that Seattle has. The iridescent texture takes on the high rise that is scheduled to be built - to remember the history and origin of the emerald city.