AR in Beijing Opera House —
Making the experience of Peking operas more engaging using Augmented Reality.
DURATION MY ROLE TOOLS
Mar - Jun 2020(3 months) User Research Unity
Interaction Design Vuforia Engine
Visual Design 3ds Max
Prototyping Photoshop
User Testing Figma
BACKGROUND
RENOVATION 2021
The Beijing Tianqiao Art Center is a theater complex with a 15-year history and is planning to undergo a renovation in the fall of 2021. The art center has four theaters and may expand with renovation. The new theaters will mainly perform traditional Peking operas.
In addition to the transformation of the physical space, the Art Center is also trying to make the entire watching process more interesting through a digital way.
THE CHALLENGE
The renovation was a collaboration between CAFA and the Art Center. After the course, the design lead proposed whether, in addition to physical space renovation, other emerging technologies could be added to increase the vitality of the Art Center.
The problem statement given to us by the Art Center was to Enhance the Opera House experience:
The Solution
An Augmented Reality System
I designed an AR system for Beijing Opera as a storytelling medium to make the audiences more interested in Beijing Operas and better understand the operas.
Generative Research
Understanding our Users and the needs of the Art Center
I used observations as an exploratory research technique to understand how the visitors in the Art center behave and how they interact with the different artifacts in the center.
I found out the different user groups in the Art Center: Children, Young Adults, Elderly Adults, and people with disabilities.
Focus User Group
Art Center wants to enhance the opera experience in both physical and digital ways and, if possible, makes more people interested in traditional Peking opera. The Art Center aims to bring about the change across people of younger ages since young people are becoming less and less interested in traditional operas.
The reasons why Art Center and I have decided to focus on Young Adults include:
On-site Survey
Following the observations, I launched a survey to get more information about the visitors and study their experiences in a very short period. The survey was conducted by recruiting individual participants in-person at the Tianqiao Art Center -
Interviews
I used the interview technique to get a better understanding of the different aspects of the visitors’ experiences.
My goal was to supplement the understanding I had gathered about the likes and dislikes of the visitors from survey and observation with a detailed understanding of the ‘Why’s’ of those through semi-structured interviews. I conducted three contextual and two non-contextual interviews.
SYNTHESIS
User Personas
Based on the user groups, we made personas to better understand the users and their motivations.
User Journey Map
While working on the personas, I also created a customer journey map based on what the persona will go through during the entire experience.
Divergent Design
I came up with 4 designs that could be implemented in the process of seeing a Peking Opera.
PROTOTYPE
AR Guidelines
The whole AR System's user interface is designed with Transparency in mind. I designed the entire design system consisting of elements and components closely adhering to the guidelines laid out by Vuforia Engine.
DEMO 01
Interactive Opera Poster
In order to let people better understand the storyline of the Opera in the poster and the audience’s reviews of the opera, I designed an interactive poster. Users can watch a preview of the opera shown in the poster and check what others say about it.
DEMO 02
Interactive Opera Ticket
To enhance the experience in the ticket buying process, I designed an interactive ticket. Users can watch a short animation performance of the opera on the ticket by scanning the QR code.
DEMO 03
Interactive Map
The interactive map feature allows users to find their venues in an easier and faster way. Users can see their directions and routes more intuitively through augmented reality.
DEMO 04
AR Performance
The main goal of the AR Performance experience is to enable users to gain a better understanding of the plot and character settings, the historical background, and the soundtracks in the play so as to appreciate Peking Opera better. This allows users to click on the icons to learn about related content.
Evaluation
User-based Testing
I chose to conduct think-aloud sessions with potential users wherein they were required to freely use the different elements of the design and express their thoughts and feelings aloud.
This step was followed by a short unstructured interview where I asked questions about the overall usability of the design and gather general feedback on the design. Specifically, I wanted to know if the design met the Tianqiao Art Center’s goals of Interest the audiences through emerging technologies while immersing them in the AR Opera experience. My goal was to:
1. Determine whether my four proposals of interaction were engaging
2. If the four proposals were easily understood
3. Discover blind spots where my prototype did not meet participants’ expectations.
I used moderator-based ratings on the participant’s level of success in completing each proposed task.
Findings
1、The whole experience needs to be more collaborative
2、AR elements could be more seamless
3、The farther the seat position is from the stage, the farther the "AR performance" experience differs from expectations
Takeaways
I learned how to:
Design for Augmented Reality Experiences - keeping in mind the spatial considerations.
Design using Unity and 3ds Max, Create basic animation effects.
Incorporate new qualitative methods in my research