AleflaviaAleflaviaThe Kanteleen Kutsu Augmented Reality (AR) experience is a collaboration with the Design Museum Helsinki (Educational Curator Leena Svinhufvud) and Aalto University (prof. Lily Díaz-Kommonen). The project re-tells the story represented in the Finnish graphic pattern Kanteleen Kutsu designed by Sanna Annukka for Marimekko.
The goal of the project was to increase the understanding of the narrative behind the Marimekko pattern and to assess whether mobile AR support this goal.
*New images from testing in Finland on the way!
The application invites the user to explore the events of the story represented by the pattern and meet the characters. The technology used is marker-based AR at the Design Museum Helsinki.
The application invites the user to explore the events of the story represented by the pattern and meet the characters. The technology used is marker-based AR at the Design Museum Helsinki.
The characters and objects present in the virtual world were cutouts from the original Marimekko pattern, that were adapted to be used as 3D characters and in the Graphic User Interface (GUI).
The UI and interaction design has the purpose of guiding the museum visitor every step of the way and granting a self-guided experience for tech savvy and new users to AR.
The UI guides the user throughout the experience through hints and instructions, The users can also read optional factual and design trivia. The GUI was designed taking into consideration color accessibility and interaction design patterns.
Interaction design, UI design, and User experience design
Wireframing and prototyping
3D modeling and animation based on Sanna Annukka’s graphics
Vectorization of Sanna Annukka’s graphics
Conducting experiments and usability tests
Development of AR application
The first iteration of the application was implemented as an interactive prototype in Adobe XD, shown in the image below. The first iteration was based on the State-of-the-Art, literature reviews and the input from the Design Museum Helsinki and Aalto University.
The application was designed and implemented in spring 2021 and was tested three times with volunteer participants from 10 different countries, in Copenhagen. The testing evaluated the ease-of-use of the AR application considering hardware (mobile phone) and content design. Usability testing and a narrative understanding test were used in every test iteration.
STIBOFONDEN awarded a travel grant for future testing at the Design Museum Helsinki.
The first iteration of the application was implemented as an interactive prototype in Adobe XD, shown in the image below. The first iteration was based on the State-of-the-Art, literature reviews and the input from the Design Museum Helsinki and Aalto University.
The application was designed and implemented in spring 2021 and was tested three times with volunteer participants from 10 different countries, in Copenhagen. The testing evaluated the ease-of-use of the AR application considering hardware (mobile phone) and content design. Usability testing and a narrative understanding test were used in every test iteration.
STIBOFONDEN awarded a travel grant for future testing at the Design Museum Helsinki.
