Create an embodied interactive experience to engage families in a cultural heritage site visit
Physical high-fidelity prototype
Video content
Custom illustrations
The Sheffield General Cemetery started collaborating with SHU to increase visitors’ engagement
The Design Futures group focuses on embodied interaction for cultural heritage
The results of this work are collected in my Bachelor’s thesis “How embodied interaction can engage families to visit the Sheffield General Cemetery”
🧠 Ideation techniques
🤖 Low-fidelity prototyping (cardboard)
🤖 High-fidelity prototyping (plywood)
The four phases of the project were:
The process started with on-field visit and research, which resulted in the conceptualization of embodied interactions and low-fidelity prototyping. In this phase, NFC tags and **Artcodes** were explored.
The final high-fidelity prototype was then envisioned, designed, and created using plywood. For this prototype, custom illustrations and animations were also created.
Three ideas were selected to further develop into cardboard low-fidelity prototypes. These three concepts used NFC technology and artcodes. They would all target families or single adults visiting the Cemetery with one or more kids.
Diary and Artcodes concept
Diary and Artcodes concept - detail
Lantern and beacons concept
Explorer and NFC concept
Following a discussion with the stakeholders at the Sheffield General Cemetery, the explorer and NFC concept was chosen to be further developed in a high-fidelity prototype using plywood. In this concept, the visitors are provided with a prop that resembles a broadcaster and a compass that guides the exploration around the Cemetery.
The aim of the experience is to find card-like props, scattered around the Cemetery. When the visitors find a card, they need to insert it inside of the broadcaster. Custom illustrations were created using Adobe Illustrator and placed on the cards, which carried NFC tags. The tag triggers a short video of a story about the Cemetery from the book “Dead Good” by Alan Brown (an example here). These and animated using PowerPoint to create simple videos, which were played on the phone that was embedded into the broadcaster.
Illustration for a card
Plywood high-fidelity prototype
Compass prototype