AR Strengths / Weaknesses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNP77K9RsjIFor this week thesis teacher Sarah asked me to playtest as many AR apps as I could and see what their strengths and weaknesses were. Then to think which strengths make sense to design for into my mvp / first prototype. For this round I got to test out about 1o different ones and hope to keep exploring more:

David Bowie Is – AR Exhibtion
Wonderscope: Story – Red Riding Hood
Wonderscope: Story – Sinclair Snakes – Museum Mischief
Big Bang / cern
Weird Type
My Caterpillar
Picture this
Seek
Night Sky

David Bowie AR Exhibit

good range of media available (costumes, liner notes, videos, etc)
liked the map of gallery lay out / table of contents
good onboarding
audio levels of various media (narrator vs song clips) were surprisingly different / a little too jarring in difference?
reiterated the importance of mastering / unifying & double checking levels for possible use cases (ex: with earbuds vs over ear headphones)

Wonderscope

voice activation to move story forwards
- encourages interaction with characters / makes the illusion feel more believable as a dialogue exchange
- builds reading skills
some stories have difficulty with scale if immobile (like tucked in for bed)? but it is meant to encourage the user to move around
good on boarding to make sure the room is light enough and that the mic & camera permissions are on

Wonderscope Story – Red Riding Hood
- uses the ability to go into spaces like entering the house with your phone moving through the door
- like the others, can click on items that the character needs to move the story forward
  - has a visual indicator of sparkle particles that radiate vertically off the item to be found / clicked (helpful with
- increases interactivity by having user read verb commands that then affect the animations like “spin” or “sprinkle”
- liked the educational aspect of the bigdipper & the north star

Wonderscope Story – Sinclair Snakes – Museum Mischief
- liked the use of different tool interactions
  - flashlight to search for hiding snake
  - duster to dust for footprints
  - how the ar museum rooms highlight