Link to my portfolio showing a full video of the AR Experience at bottom of page.
Initial Brief and Meeting the Team
This Jam I decided to do very last minute. It was sandwiched in between 3 other jams that I had just gotten done with, and about to start. I was very busy at the time, but felt like it was a good opportunity to connect with a local studio, as well as try out some new technology that I had not worked with before and looked very interesting. This was a one week jam that effectively had 3 working days, 1 day for briefing, and 1 day got showing off the finished project. A quick turnaround for using a new tech stack, but a welcomed challenge and break from my usual workflow.
The brief/deliverables were clearly outlined: a trackable version of the earth, 3 interactable hotspots, and an educational focus on climate change. This led our team into a good discussion and clear direction of scoping something manageable and for a target audience of 12-14 year-olds.
New Tech Stack
Within the initial days of briefing, meeting teams, and acclimating myself with the base project provided by the team at Infinite Form, I was the sole developer on the project and had to adjust to a few new technologies quickly. Firstly the AR framework Zappar and re-familiarizing myself Javascript. I had worked with Javascript before, so I felt comfortable diving back into it within a few days. The base project was full enough of useful materials, functions, and documentation to find my way around and start creating things immediately.
Within the first 2 days, I was able to create a working prototype of a trackable Earth as well as interactable Hotspots that triggered some sort of event when the player touched them using their phone. Because this was more manageable than I thought, I wanted to include some unique interaction that I could add to help stand out a bit. So I created an interaction where the user could drag their thumb across the screen as they held the phone to rotate the earth in either direction. This had two effects of creating an accessible option for people to interact with the 3D model without walking around it, and a fun element of engagement with the overall experience.
These initial mechanics came together quickly and in tandem with producing these, the asset, illustrator, and UX designer members were working on producing the rest of the assets that would go into the experience. Each hotspot when interacted with would pull up a card with a small story outlining different climate issues, research being done to remedy that issue, as well as tie-ins on a more global scale. Out hotspots included a smog cloud, ocean, and fauna.
After assets were added, I had the overall experience done with a few hours to spare before presenting it with the studio in-person. So I decided to add in a few other flourishes to enhance it, such as the cards animating in and out of the space as they were called in / called out, to make the scene feel a little more alive. I also refined the positioning of the cards to make it more readable because we had a lot of text on a card that was meant to be read on phones of all sizes, and these were 3D assets existing in the environment.
Conclusion / Thoughts
Overall I was really pleased with the outcome of this Jam and the way our team gelled within the short time period. It felt great to do something out of my comfort zone and quickly learn on the fly a new tech stack. This process is a great confidence booster, even with the pains of jumping over the initial hurdles.
We received great feedback on our application and spent some time with the team after presenting to network a bit and share other thoughts about the industry and their personal workflows. I was really pleased I convinced myself to participate even under the pressures of working in-between / during other projects.
Link to my portfolio showing a full video of the AR Experience:
https://www.andydalaimo.com/portfolio