Interactive AR Geography Classroom: WWF Free River
WeiTing Huang
WWF Free River is an APP that turns a geography lecture into a lively, interactive game. With few simple clicks on the phone, the audience could start their journey in the immersive story. In the interactive story, the audience could participate in the process of building a dam. From examining the environment, building constructions, to testing the flow of the river by driving a mini AR boat, the audience is able to use God’s perspective to understand the relationship between human civilization and the environment.
User Motivations, Intentions, and Activations
The motivators (Erin Reilly, Leveraging Engagement Model, and Gensler’s Experience Index) of the WWF Free River audience were: discovery/ exploration, entertainment, and immersion. Discovery is found in the geographic information audience could approach while navigating the app. Entertainment is produced by the little game hidden in the story. For instance, when testing the flow of the river, the audience can control a mini boat to collect balls on the river to get points. Immersion is created by engaging the audience in an imaginary world by AR technology. The audience could travel to different river areas in the world even they are staying in their bedroom.
In the perspective of the Four Stage of Activation, 1) WWF Free River’s audience will include any individual that is interested in gaming. However, we suggest that students and teachers in Geographic class can be more attracted to the APP, and are able to make the most use of it by turning boring textbooks into an immersive experience; 2) The WWF Free River App is compatible with both iOS and Android. Meaning that the audience could access the experience anywhere, anytime as long as having a mobile or desktop; 3) User would have agenda to explore the AR space through the interactive story; 4) The motivations are discovery/ exploration, entertainment, and immersion, which is explained in the previous paragraph.
The writer selects the WWF Free River App to get inspiration for the ongoing experience designing process of the SXSW historical museum. The historical museum is supposed to apply immersive technology and recreate iconic scenes and objects of SXSW events in different time periods. The concept of AR gaming could perfectly combine with the museum experience, in which the audience could pull out their phone and see the historical object from different era’s live music concerts, interactive activities, and film festivals. It would be inspiring if the audience could interact and play small games while knowing the historical background of the performing outfit or iconic posters.
General Summary
At the begging of the experience, the app would ask you to find a space to lay out the AR landscape. As soon as you touch the screen, rural scenery would demonstrate on your phone. The narrative would introduce the environment of the virtual world and explain how a dam could benefit humans if built in an appropriate location. There are delicate 3D animations of animals, hills, villages, and lakes. Making the scenery interesting and lively.
The audience could follow the instructors to scan the environment and find the right place to construct a dam. After building the dam by tapping on the screen, the audience could even activate a raining animation that simulates the situation of how the river flows after the construction. There are also mini-games allowing users to navigate through the river to immerse themselves in the story.
After the journey, a world map that located all rivers around the globe would pop up, enable users to click on different areas to have a deeper understanding of the environment. Within a few taps, the interface would zoom in the selected area and show a clear 3D image and animation of the local environment, including animals and the geology construct of the river. Users could hold and spin the image to see the animation from different angles.
Interface Design
For the interface design, the app is very intuitive and gives clear instructions that allowed first-time users to understand how to navigate through the app. It gives responsive feedback to enhance the sense of sureness (Mogensen, C., 2020), and make users' actions predictable by adding notes before requiring tapping actions. In addition, the narrative also has different language options that would change based on your mobile setting.
Overall, the WWF Free River App applied the refreshing concept of a lively geography classroom and provide an interesting immersive experience. In my point of view, the storytelling form could be utilized in different filed to attract a more engaging audience. It is exciting to see more experience designers apply the technique and create more inspiring immersive stories.
Bibliography
Mogensen, C. (2020,Nov 4). Feedback. SuperOffice.
