Objective

The purpose of this mobile app prototype is to aid museum curators and researchers during their research process by providing a digital solution as a way to access artifacts that are not currently available on hand.

Research

During my interview process researchers working at museums and cultural heritage scholars, some of the main challenges and pain points of the research process included artifacts not being accessible online, artifacts being mis-catalogued online, and not having the ability to travel several times a year. My digital solution is an augmented reality mobile app that allows researchers to access artifacts remotely.

Prototype Explanation

For this prototype, a multi-target cube was used to give researchers a tangible experience during their research process, since tangibility and physicality were one of the main points that were iterated by researchers. The augmented reality app is activated by a physical cube with six QR codes, representing different sides of a digitized 3D object. By holding and rotating the cube, the app recognizes and displays an artifact on screen, and the researcher is able to imitate the process of holding said artifact. This method is to be used to enhance the pre-research and post-travel experience by allowing researchers to access the artifacts they are studying without having the physical object in front of them.

Programs

Adobe XD and Sketch: design prototypes
Unity and Vuforia: animations