Augmented Reality Project Overview
"Designing an Augmented Reality magical experience for the IKEA Food hub"
This is a passion project I adapted from a frog designer Jianda Lin, in his speech and he introduced this design probe with an open ending.
The project we were given was to define unique food hub experience by leveraging IKEA resource and value. We didn't investigate all existing restaurant spaces right away. Instead, instead we ask the question, what are the most significant things people want and what can bring value to them?
After exploring with the location below above, we believe the food hub is more than a place to eat. and there were principles that might bring values to visitors: Exploration, Efficiency, Gathering, Conversation.
Research
IKEA sells not only merchandise but also a way of living and their corporate culture of warmth. IKEA also tries to provide customers with the best shopping experience in a personalized and technological way, they want to make their customers closer. On the other hand, the IKEA food hub not only serves as a restaurant, but a place where people can chat, rest, dine-in, or wait for friends.
To get a better understanding of how people spend time and how they utilize the space there. I went to IKEA food hub and spent a day there. I found:
Observing a complete dining experience, I realized that potential design opportunity point may lay around those iron railings (where people line up) and around dining tables where people eat, relax, and playing with their phones.
By talking to different groups of people in this space and observing them in from multiple perspectives, I discovered different levels of needs. For instance, some people have an expectation of efficiency. Some parent-child groups might have also special expectations from the space, such as child-friendly activities.
After research and analysis, I found one thing that is meaningful to the general crowd which is the Interaction between people.
From there, I also decided to bring in another insightful quote of the new definition of term interaction from Xiang Biao, professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford.
"In the busy world today, with the development of science and technology, people have gradually started to ignore things around them, and often stare at their small mobile phone screens. We often only pay attention to ourselves or trivial things or the news of the world. The "middle" is often overlooked. In terms of space, people started to focus only on their homes and workspaces, often ignoring the "near environment".
Correspondingly, I hope to use the right technology to create more interactions in design, so that people can generate interactions with space, interactions between people, and interactions between people and technology and culture. In order to break the barriers brought by people's lives in the frame of mobile phones, in this eating space, they began to rediscover the people around them, the things around them, and the lost "nearby".
Analyze
To help me understand Interaction design goals, I decided to break down the term "interaction" into four sections.
1. The interaction between people.
In IKEA space, the crowd can be divided into group customer and individual customers. While I was observing the crowd, I found that other than considering the promotion of the existing crowd atmosphere for group customers, I also need to take care of the needs of solo customers, especially those who wish to stay alone.
2. The interaction between human and space
Limitation of space: When analyzing IKEA's eating space, I found that the current IKEA eating space design cannot accommodate large-scale events for hundreds of people. This means that the actual activities and experiences can only be based on tables (the number of people is set at 1-4 people).
Limitations of the Internet: I will try to isolate the impact of the Internet on people in the design so that all interactions stay only in this space. Although the Internet can connect more people and the larger world, I focus more on the quality of social interactions rather than the quantity. I also focus more on the depth of interaction than the frequency. Other possibilities: try design around foods, tables, smells, surroundings or use new technology to explore some designs that are invisible to the naked eye, such as using AR technology to arrange some decorations in the space.
3. The interaction between human and technology
Choosing the equipment: VR and MR technology and a head-mounted display can deliver an amazing experience. However, headset equipment is expensive and they are not intuitive for new users. Furthermore, there may be problems such as cleaning and maintenance later on.
I decided to use a mobile phone since they are virtually ubiquitous in developed areas. For a simple AR experience, people can easily get started, and simple program plug-ins can provide a wonderful experience at a low cost. AR devices also allow people to transfer their attention from mobile screens to the real world and the people around them.
4. The interaction between human and cultural
Considering that the smaller activities do not attract all people's attention on a regular day. To maximax the experience, I decided to have put this experience on a holiday, a day where everyone is hoping to be special, for example Christmas.
Analyzing the flow of people in the space and the way people use the space will allow integration of the design into every corner of the space, taking care of different needs from for different groups of people.When lined up by the railing, very little conversation takes place. People look up at the menu, try to see what the person in front of them has ordered, or just play on their mobile phones.
Design
After going through all the research processes, I decided to design with augmented reality and for the Holidays, and here I will use Christmas as an example. To design a unique food hub experience for everyone during the magical holiday.
With new technological innovations, bringing people new and special experiences at this really special time of the year. I think my design reaches my goal of reducing people's sense of time to have people more immersed in this space, staying in this space longer, and draw closer to the distance between everyone.
