Feedback : We can not go in with a blind eye: We have to figure it out with our target group through testing. We are seeing the boxes now more as a tool for exploration. Little hints and multiple aspects to stories. Do we have a way that is leading someone trough it? People need to spend time with the tools, use their imagination to put oneself into the life of the person that is the owner of the Alba. How do we keep someone long enough at the box. How do we present the AR? We have to test how people react to AR and the story. Important: Design Language. It is slowing down an experience if you have to read before that the whole time. We want them to search, hinting and giving them a taste. Maybe we could integrate explanation, or a context in the app (link to separate stories) . Hidden stories: It is a great opportunity to choose the AR as a layer of an explanation. To kind of reward curiosity. Scattering it to show how it could look like in a larger scale. Experiments to see if we need more context trough experiments. Concentrate on making an experience before thinking how to curate this experience.
We choose to focus on a younger audience for our project to make the digitalised (and also tangible) Alba Amicorum collection easier and more appealing to access. We decided to steer our outcome in the direction of students today as a target group because the owners of Albas were often students themselves. Students could maybe envision this stage of life more vividly, traveling, developing new social circles, visualizing what they experienced for others (Instagram and Co.) and trying to find a place in the contemporary society. A second factor why we choose students as our target group is the knowledge and curiosity for new technologies that will allow us to integrate that more intensely in our process. (e.g VR and AR). We specified the term “Students” to behavioural science and Liberal Art Students. Therefore we will interview people from Leiden University as well as fellow students from KABK and other Universities also in Germany to see how this concept would also work on an international level.
AR capable is almost every phone nowadays. It needs: iOS 8.0+ or Android 4.0. 3+. Basically any of the smartphones (99.8%) are capable to deliver simple, marker based AR experience. For anyone looking for an easy answer, it would be accurate to point to the largest platform, web AR, which has 3.04 billion compatible devices.
Why did we choose a sensory experience for students? Make it vivid and relatable. Let them dive into the stories we choose. Trigger emotions and memories with Tangibility, Audio and Visuals. Students do have to sit in front of the laptop day after day experiencing and learning everything from a screen. Senses like touch are neglected in many ways. We want to bring back this different way of experiencing stories. We want to break out of the digital study routine the students at the KB are following and spark their interest in a different way. We are adapting to the analog way of educating oneself through books and bring in another layer of learning by using the senses of the students. Our sensory exhibits encourage learning through exploration, curiosity, problem solving and creativity. According to research at Yale University, all learning enters through the senses. When all five senses are touched at some level, our entire being becomes engaged, and from this complete part of ourselves, our emotions are heightened, thoughts fire more rapidly and creativity begins to flow. Each sense captures a different aspect of reality. Traces of reality and stories.
