Improve and build upon the existing exhibition space in the ANZAC Memorial in Hyde Park (Sydney). Create an engaging, personal and respectful experience by building an emotional connection with visitors, in particular Millennials (those aged 18 – 28). The purpose of this project was to educate Millennials on the notion of war. Designing a personal experience will create an emotional connection between the visitor to the War Memorial and the ANZAC story. A successful design would spark curiosity and encourage further engagement with the ANZAC legacy.
ANZAC Augmented was completed by 4 University of Sydney Undergraduates. I engaged in all aspects of the Design Process. This included designing and developing the contextual mapping activities for the focus groups as well as conducting, observing and transcribing these focus groups. I also assisted in generating ideas and further refining the final concept of ANZAC Augmented.
User research was carried out with Millennials in order to gain direct experience from potential users. Both domestic and international participants were chosen to gain a broad range of perspectives. Participants were interviewed in small focus groups with generative tools to assist in explaining participants thoughts and opinions to the moderator. A sensitising booklet was to be completed before arrival at the focus group in order to encourage the user into the state of mind that was needed for the process.
Participants were asked to complete 3 tasks these included a timeline activity with flat icons, a cognitive map where participants were asked to place images on an ‘XY’ axis, a sketch activity asking participants to sketch a snapshot of how they perceive war. After each activity participants were asked to explain their response to the group and the remaining participants were encouraged to ask questions, add their thoughts and generate conversation. This allowed the participants to openly discuss their thoughts and opinions about a difficult topic such as war.
“I just think that a lot of people our age don’t care about anything.” – Participant B
“It’s because I associate war with ANZAC day and well, to me it’s just a day of rest and sleeping. Or like a day I can lounge on the cough more than a war memorial thing… I hope I don’t sound too disrespectful” – Participant E
“Playing games like COD (Call of Duty) doesn’t make me think about war even though it’s a popular game that are based on wars” – Participant D
“The older wars, that’s just whatI think of as soon as someone says war. It’s very different now but it’s still what comes to mind first” – Participant C
Statement Card Clustering was used to organise the large amount of qualitative data generated by the focus group sessions and their activities. This allowed for a greater organisation of common themes between all participants and assisted in creating user needs and pain points that Millennials face with the notion of war. Key quotes and insights were highlighted in these cards to allow for quick referencing when referring back to the User Research.
Story boarding was used to visualise and understand how a design would work within the space as well as the key touch points between the user and the environment. The team were also able to consider how both domestic and international visitors could use the various aspects of the design.
This design utilised Augmented Reality (AR) to tell users the story of the Australian and New Zealand soldier. The user approaches a soldier’s uniform on display in the Centenary Exhibition. A soldier’s head appears on the shoulder of the mannequin and tells the experiences of those who wore that particular uniform.
The design allows visitors to learn about the hometowns of our soldiers. Users are able to download an app that will show the location of these towns and cities on the map of Australia. The user is able to tap on the location of a town to learn more about the location and those who enlisted and made the ultimate sacrifice. As the user walks around the space the corresponding locations are highlighted in the app.
This design encourages visitors to calmly and respectfully walk around the exhibition space. Throughout the existing space there are sculptures of soldiers and nurses to represent those who fought for Australia and New Zealand. As users walk through the space, faces will be projected onto these statues telling the story of those who were soldiers and nurses.
The design allows visitors to gain more information about the soldiers home town. Through the app, users are able to scan the names of the location in front of them. The user is then able to see information about the location and the soldiers who have enlisted. Both domestic and international visitors are able to learn about the soldiers through this design.
A decision matrix was created to reflect the criteria to evaluate success. It was important to the team to be respectful of the soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. The team compared each matrix to one another and chose the AR Uniform Storytelling design as the concept to develop further as it successfully met all criteria to evaluate success.
A video prototype was created showing a walk-through of the experience and highlighting key touch points between the user and the ANZAC memorial. Check out the prototype of ANZAC Augmented below.
The completion of this project reinforced the importance of listening to the information and the experiences that participants are willing to share. Providing research participants with generative tools and activities can encourage individuals to easily share and reflect upon their experience. I thoroughly enjoyed analysing and discussing the results of these tools with participants in order to understand their experiences.
This project also showed me how important it was to consider the impact of a design within an existing space. This allowed me to consider how changing the physical space may impact and change the values of the space. This was especially so when designing for a space that encourages such strong values such as respect and reflection.
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