Know Your
Mountain Bike
An Augmented
Reality Experience
Brief
For this project I was tasked with creating my own augmented reality experience. To do this I came up with an idea of explain the basic anatomy of a mountain bike and how these systems work. In addition we had to make graphics, develop our content, and create a sticker.
Challenge
I wanted to create an Augmented reality experience that targets new comers to mountain biking and college students who may need a little help with their bike. I also wanted to not make the experience and its content overwhelming for my viewers, so I broke it down into four basic categories and included graphics to help further the description. I also had to find a suitable location for my sticker.
Role
Designer
Application
Artivive, Procreate, Adobe Illustrator
Client
Class Project
Sticker Design and Location
I wanted my sticker to speak for the topic easily. In order to do this I developed a few ideas and finally landed on the current design. This design looks to represent a crankset that you would find on a bike. Within the crankset I included the title in a font closely related to the font Trek uses. I also placed 'scan me' where you would find the brand of a crankset on a bike. For the placement of my sticker I tried a few different locations from a bike lane sign, bike storage, to my own bike. Ultimately for the purpose of a video I placed it on my own bike so I could get the lighting I needed.
Augmented Reality Experience
I utilized the space of my project to provide information on the four most basic systems of mountain bikes. I created four text bubbles containing a title of the system, description of parts and what the system does, and a graphic of what the system looks like. Looking behind, beside, or in front of the system you will see the most common tools used on a bike and nuts and bolts used to place these systems together on the bike.
Sketches and Research
I came up with the graphic sketches very early on in the process. I knew right away I wanted to have a sketch or draft feel to the graphics to help viewers picture their own bike. The text bubbles were the longest process because I wanted a redemption from previous projects, so I studied up on some work from other people and set out to make my layout. I decided to make the title bold and bring to capture the attention of viewers and align the title and subtext to give a consistent flow. The placement of the graphics varies because I didn't want to layout to feel overused. I also decided against using all black text bubbles and opted for a blue and black theme ranging from the lightest brightest blue to the darkest black.
Prototyping
This was my first time using Artivive and I wasn't sure what I or the system would be fully capable of, so I ran into a lot of adapting and adjusting. Below you'll see different variations of my layout and the final layout. You will also find sticker sizes, we were asked to print our stickers for this projected and I wanted to make sure I got the sizing correct so it would function as an anchor image properly.
Reflection
This project was a new medium for me and allowed me to explore my content in a three decisional space. I found that working on this project I was intimidated by what could or could not be done and found myself playing it safe in the end. Although, with the newfound confidence I'm eager to try doing other augmented reality projects and furthering my knowledge with this skill. If I had more time, there are a few things I would go back and adjust, like making the graphics outside of the text bubble so you could explore both sides of them and I would also explore more background content with color. However, with that being side, I am proud of what I could accomplish and my new understanding for augmented reality and am excited to keep growing with this new skill and knowledge.
