Our Oceans: Progress, Week One

This past week, I’ve been researching and processing what I might want this augmented reality app to look like. If you want to check out the first post about it, you can check it out here. Since then, I’ve chosen to lean toward the augmented reality idea, and create a “chunk” of the ocean that can be used to teach about pollution, particularly the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

To begin my research this week, I studied the WWF Free Rivers AR App and made note of some features I like.

WWF: Free Rivers AR App

I like that the user can interact with the scene and to see how the ecosystem works as a whole.

There are different parts of the scene that can be touched to make things happen. The GIF above is of a tappable cloud that makes it rain on the habitat.

I like that the user can see the harmful object enter the environment and see how it interacts with the ecosystem immediately.

In the Free Rivers app, the goal is to teach the user about the damage that a poorly placed dam can do to the environment. The user can watch the dam be placed, as shown above.

I also like that the user can take part in helping the environment get better after the damage has been done!

The user has the opportunity to bring down the dam, and place sustainable forms of energy in the ecosystem.

I love that this app takes the user through a whole story that’s interactive and really educational. I want to use these ideas in my design.

Our Ocean: Planning This Out

I started my idea process by re-drawing the “ocean cube”, as I’ve taken to calling it.

My “Ocean Cube”: here is one page of my planning process.

I’ve begun to list some species I might want to include, and I’m trying to figure out how much space I want this cube to be. Do I want the cube to represent a few cubic kilometers? One cubic kilometer? I need to figure out just how much of the ocean I want to create. If I have time and resources to make it happen, I want to make it so that the user can “zoom” in and out to focus on a smaller “chunk” of the ocean and see more wildlife up close, or zoom out and see the currents and the impact of the garbage patch a bit more.

I want to show the currents with arrows pointing into and out of the cube, as shown in the drawing above.

Once I re-drew my Ocean Cube, I wanted to try to make the layout of the screen: how would it look when one is using the app?

I have a small wireframe on the left, and a quick outline of the “story” a user will walk through on the right.

I want to make sure there’s a map so that the user will know where they are in the Pacific Ocean (or in the world, if I have the time to make more than one scene). I also wanted the story to progress on the bottom of the screen; the user can go through the story as fast of as slowly as they choose, and be guided through it within the Cube as well.

I have five main points for this story:

1. Show the ocean the way it ought to be: vibrant and healthy.
2. Show the progressive pollution and damage to the ocean and the wildlife within it as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch grows.
3. Highlight the map, somehow, to show just how large the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is.
4. Show what could happen if this pollution goes unchecked.
5. Allow the user to interact by starting ocean cleanup efforts, and watch the wildlife return.

I know that this is a lot of work to get done in a month, and I know that I have a lot more planning to do, but I’m really excited about where this project is going to go!