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PROJECT 2�EVALUATING USER EXPERIENCE AND DATA COMMUNICATION IN AR:�VISUALIZING BIRD MIGRATION AND SIGHTING DATA

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Colby Rees

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Final Project Overview and Deviations

  • Initial project: Using bird migration data, create an AR visualization to increase user immersion through multiple interactions. Compare the AR with a 2D web-based visualization of bird migration data. Through this comparison, gain an understanding of features and content that make users choose AR or web.
  • Deviated: I originally wanted to allow for users to directly interact with each bird in the visualization, but I found that either I could use the controllers to switch between seasons, or I could use them for the grab interactions. As my project 1 focused on grab interactions, I decided to prioritize seasonal switching.
  • Final project 2 goal: Through comparing the AR and web visualizations, understand what components of AR can make it a more desirable method to comprehend data.

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Deliverables

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Deliverables

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Wiki Contributions

  • Added bird migration data to Scientific Data page
  • AR for Bird Migration page
  • Unity Buttons page
  • Unity Toggles page
  • User Experience: AR vs Web page
  • Particle Systems in Unity page
  • Spatial Audio in AR page
  • Controller Buttons Mapping in Unity page

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In-Class Activity Findings

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In-Class Activity Findings

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Challenges

  • Unity challenges
    • Unity is difficult and I learned a lot about compatibility in Unity with different packages
    • Trying to use Meta Building Blocks worked best for me again while standard Unity UI objects caused my project to not compile
  • Data challenges
    • Parsing large datasets takes time and I had to create a plan to make sure I was getting the data I needed
  • Understanding user wants
    • Questioning how to build something to engage a user and understanding how to deliver this

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Takeaways and What I've Learned

  • When developing in AR and trying to communicate data to a user, user engagement is very important and there is a fine line between engaging and overwhelming
  • Including audio was a reason users felt the remembered data better
    • If there are future iterations of this project, it would be interesting to test a version with the bird calls and a version without the bird calls to see how this alters memorization and comprehension of data
  • Level of immersion and level of enjoyment were key elements that ranked higher in AR than for the Web
  • Developing for AR, especially through Unity, is hard but the amount of options Unity allows for felt worth the challenges

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