Sprint 3: What ?! Did you say Hologram ?!

We are team Wonder Maker!

In sprint 2, we decided to create a campfire projected in a hologram. Our client appreciated our idea of ​​using hologram as a tool or device.

So we decided to continue using hologram. In sprint 3, we focused on thinking how the shape of hologram should look like and what kind of contents would help people stay in the moment.

Arena Visit on Oct 28, 2018

Before starting 1st week, our client gave us an opportunity to observe how people act during the match. It was special match since Ajax (home team in Johan Cruiff ArenA) was playing Feyenoord (Rotterdam) who are their "arch-enemies".

During the game and at the end of the game, we went to the space where we will place our prototype and observed the behavior of customers and how the atmosphere is like. It was really useful and we found several insights which we did not know before.

• Sooner after the game was finished, people stood in a queue for escalator and our space was cleared in 30 minutes.
• Many people were singing happily in groups after the game.
• Our space was as cold as outside.

From those insights, we guessed that people might want to stay longer if we prepare something which makes people want to sing more or something which can make them feel warm.

Brainstorming

Based on findings, and taking our 5 focus points into account (1. Place-making, 2. Sense of home 3. gain creator, 4. Sensory-Scape, 5. Social interaction), we brainstormed about contents shown on hologram.

We split ourselves into 2 groups.

The rule was one person shares his or her idea and the other one continues to builds upon it instead of saying "but" or "no".

After 20 minutes we gather together again, combined results of both groups and rank the ideas. We came up with 3 different types of contents.

1. Interactive fireplace: We added interactive functions to our previous idea, campfire. If people sing around the fire, the size, color, and burning rate of the fire will change based on the loudness and pitch of the crowd's voice and tempo of the song.

2. AI quizmaster: Using Wikipedia content, we formulate real-time questions related to the event. For example, if it is a Bruno Mars concert, it might ask you "Which was the first album of Bruno Mars?".

3. Showcasing video highlights: We show some movies about the event such as highlights, old clips of performers, or behind-the-scenes and exclusive footage.

Building the Hologram and its Contents

After brainstorming session, we started building the structure of the hologram and designing some contents. We prioritized the contents using MoSCoW and decided to work primarily on Interactive fireplace and Showcasing video highlights. Nozomi and Krassimira made animation videos such as fire and content of showcase. Dikshant and Seiya figured out how to make interactive functions like changing color of fire based on sensor using Processing and Arduino. (If you want to know how to connect Processing and Arduino, you can learn in detail here: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/connecting-arduino-to-processing/all )

Since our prototype would be large, we needed to figure out a good way of displaying contents on the hologram. We found it difficult to prepare a big screen, so we decided to use a projector and something could be a substitute of screen. And we were actually struggling because we were not sure if the projector would work well or not. We tried some materials such as paper, white cloth, black cloth. And finally our content looked like good when we used a white cloth as a screen.

This is our prototype!

User Testing

On Nov 13th, 2018, we showed our prototype to people at Digital Society School and introduced our 3 ideas. As soon as we turned on the hologram, people came around and they were curious about the mechanism and how it would work. We asked them some questions about our ideas.

• Which idea do you prefer at first sight?
  At first impression, people preferred interactive fireplace to other ideas.
• Which idea can help you talk people from other group?
  Since social interaction is one of the key purpose, we addressed this question, and people preferred interactive fire and AI quiz idea.
• Which idea can make you stay longer?
  This question is connected to our purpose directly, and they thought AI quiz and video idea would make them stay longer.

Some of them also gave us feedback that they want to have warm air and burning fire sound. Some of them wanted to see backstage image through Instagram Stories of performers.

Vision for our Next Sprint

We presented our work to our client, and they advised us to continue to think about contents. In this sprint, we came up with abstract vision of the content, so they also recommended on building it more specifically.

Our goal of next sprint will be "Build interactions which make people stay longer around the hologram".

We are hoping to build ideas which will give people a truly "Wow!" Moment!

These are links to our previous blogs.

Sprint 1: https://medium.com/digitalsocietyschool/staying-in-the-moment-sprint-2-8278c6eb81a4

Sprint 2: https://medium.com/digitalsocietyschool/w-for-wonder-sprint-1-edc905efa155

The Digital Society School is a growing community of learners, creators and designers who create meaningful impact on society and its global digital transformation. Check us out at digitalsocietyschool.org.