Experiential Design / Task 2 - Project Proposal

on

19th May 2025 - 1st June 2025 (Week 5 - Week 6)

Sin Jun Ming 0364638

Experiential Design / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media / Taylor's University

Task 2 - Project Proposal


LECTURES


Week 5 - Screen Prototyping
In Week 5, we made further progress on our AR project by implementing video playback. Now, when the camera detects the image target, a video is displayed over it. We also began exploring interactivity by coding in Visual Studio Code. For the tutorial task, we programmed a button that triggers an explosion animation after being clicked three times, causing the cube in the video to "explode." We used an explosion animation from the Unity Asset Store, which added a fun and dramatic touch to our AR experience.

Fig 1.1 Week 5 tutorial

Week 6 - Scenes Prototyping
In Week 6, we had an online class where we learned how to create multiple scenes in Unity to make our AR project feel more like a complete app. We designed a simple home screen with two buttons: “Launch AR” and “Credits,” and built a separate scene for the credits page. On the AR camera scene, we added an info panel that can be toggled on and off with a button. This activity helped us understand how to structure navigation and design user interfaces within an AR application.

Fig 1.2 Week 6 tutorial

Instructions

Task 2 - Project Proposal


Requirements:
  1. Come up with an experience design project from a subject/topic of their choice. This can be anything from screen experience to physical space experience.
  2. Create a professional experience design proposal document that explains their project idea and how will the experience be for the user.
  3. The proposal should contain analysis of the current experience, comparison with similar solutions and how it can be better, Sketches to visualize the experience, Mock design of how the final outcome should be from the user’s perspective. 

1. Ideation

After completing Task 1, where I explored three separate AR-based concepts, I began evaluating how each idea could be improved or potentially merged. In this task, which Hanson and I work as a group, need to finalize an AR app idea from the initial of six ideas including Hanson's.

We took inspiration from Hanson’s ideas on enhancing emotional presence using AR. The idea is to create an AR music app that transforms how users experience their favorite songs, not just through sound, but also through atmosphere and visuals.

To guide our process, we wrote the following problem statement:

  • Problem Statement:

Despite the growing popularity of immersive technologies and music streaming services, users still experience a lack of personal connection and engagement with their music environments. Current platforms offer limited ways to visualize or feel the mood of different music genres in their physical space. There is also minimal interactivity between audio content and surroundings, resulting in a passive listening experience. Users seeking a more immersive and emotionally resonant music interaction, such as room ambiance transformation, real-time lyrics, or music tied to physical objects, are underserved by existing solutions.

We also focus on three main features:

    1. AR Target Scanning for Music Playback
  • Users can scan a physical target such as a poster, sticker, or printed image using the in-app AR camera. Once the target is detected, a selected song will automatically play, creating an interactive and physical connection to digital music content.

    2. Genre-Based Room Filters
  • After a song is triggered, the app applies AR visual filters to the user’s environment based on the genre of the music. These include color overlays, ambient animations, and particle effects that reflect the mood and tone of the music, enhancing the overall listening experience.

    3. Real-Time Lyrics Display in AR
  • While music is playing, synced song lyrics appear in 3D space through the AR view, allowing users to read or sing along without looking away. The lyrics float or animate gently in the environment, aligning with the rhythm and tempo of the track.

2. Process

Once we finalized the idea for the AR music app, the next step was to define what we actually wanted to achieve through it. We started by identifying key aspects of the user journey and broke them down into clear and achievable goals.
  • Goals:
    1. Enhance Music Engagement through Augmented Reality
    • Create a unique, immersive music experience by integrating AR visuals that reflect and amplify different music genres and moods.
    2. Personalize the Listening Environment
    • Allow users to transform their physical space with customizable filters and ambient effects that match the genre or vibe of the music they are playing.
    3. Encourage Music Discovery and Interaction
    • Enable interactive features such as AR-based music triggers (e.g., scanning an object to play a playlist) and dynamic lyrics display to deepen user interaction with music.
To better understand the potential of our AR music app and refine our direction, we looked into existing applications with similar concepts. This helped us identify both inspirations and gaps in the current market.

  • Similar Applications:

    1. AR audio app-Field

    • Fields is a free AR app that turns your surroundings into a 3D soundscape. Users can explore or create spatial audio using their iPhone, placing sounds that move and react as they walk—offering a new way to experience and tell stories through sound.

Fig 2.1 AR audio app-Field

    2. AR Lyrics
    • AR Lyrics identifies any music playing around you and places 3D animated lyrics into your environment.
Fig 2.2 AR Lyrics

To ensure our app design was user-centered, we began by identifying and narrowing down our target audience. 

  • Target Audience:
    1. Music Lovers & Enthusiasts
    • Individuals deeply connected to music as a form of expression, emotion, or identity.
    2. Gen Z & Millennials
    • Young digital natives (aged 16–25) who grew up with social media, streaming platforms, and personalization in digital tools.
    3. Immersive Experience Seekers
    • Users interested in sensory-based apps, immersive art, meditation, or sound therapy.

With our target audiences defined, we moved on to creating user personas to better understand their motivations, behaviors, and expectations. These personas would act as fictional representations of real users, helping us design features that directly address their needs and pain points.

Fig 2.3 User Persona 1 - Adam Low

Fig 2.4 User Persona 2 - Aina Razak

Fig 2.5 User Persona 3 - Daniel Chong

To better understand the user experience and highlight the value of our app, we created two user journey maps, one showing the typical music experience without the app, which revealed pain points like lack of immersion and constant app switching, and another showing the improved experience with our AR music app, where scanning a target triggers music, visuals, and lyrics in one seamless, immersive flow.

Fig 2.6 User Journey Map

Fig 2.7 Proposed Solutions

Fig 2.8 New User Journey Map

3. Visualization

  • Moodboard:
Fig 2.9 Moodboard
  • Color Palette:

    • This color palette was chosen to reflect the creative, immersive nature of the AR music experience. The vibrant purples evoke imagination and align with modern music and tech aesthetics, while the deep tones like Dark lavender blue(#2C2750) and Charcoal Black(#1E1E1E) provides contrast and moodiness, enhancing visual depth. Soft accents like Soft Vanilla (#FFFDF4) ensures readability and balance. Together, the palette captures the feeling of digital concerts and genre-based environments, making the interface feel expressive, futuristic, and engaging, perfect for users seeking a personalized and visually rich music experience.
Fig 2.10 Color Palette

  • Typography:

    • We chose Inter for its modern, clean, and highly readable design—ideal for digital interfaces and immersive AR experiences. Designed specifically for screen use, Inter offers excellent legibility across different sizes and resolutions, making it perfect for displaying 3D lyrics, menu options, and real-time interactions in the AR music app. Its multiple weights (Bold, Medium, Regular, Light) allow flexible hierarchy and visual contrast, supporting both expressive headlines and comfortable body text. Overall, Inter reflects the app’s tech-forward, youth-friendly, and user-centric design style.
Fig 2.11 Typography

  • Iconography:

    • We chose this icon set for its clean, modern style and high readability, ensuring intuitive navigation and a consistent look that fits the app’s immersive music experience.
Fig 2.12 Iconography

  • Mock Up:

    • To visualize the user interface and flow of our AR music app, we used Figma to create the mockups. Figma allowed us to design each screen in detail, from the home view with the AR camera to the target detection interface, music playback screen, and AR lyric display. It was useful for planning the layout, interactions, and consistency across different features. We also used prototyping tools in Figma to simulate how users would navigate through the app, helping us refine the user experience before development.
Fig 2.13 Figma Process

Fig 2.14 Mock Up 1

Fig 2.15 Mock Up 2

Fig 2.16 Mock Up 3

Fig 2.17 Mock Up 4

4. Final Submission

Proposal Document:

Fig 4.1 Proposal Document

Proposal Slide:

Fig 4.2 Proposal Slide

Proposal Presentation Video: https://youtu.be/pznTLlUhnl8


Figma: 

Fig 4.3 Figma file


Reflection

Working on this project has given me valuable insight into designing for AR experiences. It was interesting to explore how augmented reality can enhance the way we interact with music, turning a simple listening activity into something more immersive and visually engaging. 

I learned how important it is to consider the user's physical environment when designing AR features, and how elements like target scanning, visual filters, and 3D lyrics can transform the atmosphere around the user. This process also helped me understand the technical and design challenges of AR, such as guiding the user through camera-based interactions smoothly. Overall, this task has strengthened my appreciation for AR as a creative medium and its potential to create more emotional and interactive digital experiences.


User persona image references:

  1. https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/authentic-small-youthful-marketing-agency_94964017.htm#fromView=search&page=1&position=12&uuid=fc55ed73-509b-457e-a6fd-03af962483dd&query=ux+designer+persona
  2. https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/university-study-abroad-lifestyle-concept-smiling-cheerful-asian-guy-glasses-standing-with-backpack-laptop-student-his-way-classes-posing-white-background_16787346.htm#fromView=search&page=1&position=1&uuid=eba23a85-9b9f-4015-82bd-cb002914cbce&query=university+student
  3. https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/isolated-shot-satisfied-muslim-student-shows-awesome-advert-points-upper-right-corner-wears-white-veil-jean-jacket_11633191.htm#fromView=search&page=1&position=3&uuid=644ee17b-7c6d-469c-8d03-9d952360dab6&query=malay+student

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