Present Tense

An AR-based platform for protesters to better organize and participate in public protests.

OVERVIEW

Protest events activate the un-initiated, change minds, register opposition, and show collective engagement. They also create disorder, chaos, injury and even death. What makes a protest successful and how to protest more effectively? By studying these questions, the project provides an AR-based solution.

MY ROLE

TYPE

TOOL

DURATION

User Research
Usability Testing
‍UX/UI Design
3D Modeling​/Animation
(Individual work, all work shown below)

App Design
Augmented Reality

Figma
Unity3d
Photoshop
Illustrator

Sep. 2021 - Oct. 2021

PUBLIC PROTEST FACTS

As one of the most straightforward ways of engaging in public discourse, PROTEST never stops happenning around the world. While the violence in protests signifacantly interferes safety of the public.
Since 2017:
Global Protests Distribution Filtered by Protest Scale - from carnegieendowment.org
Source: dataverse.harvard.edu
Occurance Rate of Different Types of Protests
Protest Violence Rate 1990-2020
Occurance Rate of Different Types of Violence
Source: 2000-2015 European Protest Data
Source: 1990-2020 Mass Mobilization Protest Data

HOW TO REDUCE VIOLENCE IN PROTESTS?

AR-Assisted Solution:

Information Updates  +  Virtual Venting Effects

Shallow Mode
Create protest events
The platform not only brings together plenty of protest events, but also provide every group or even single person with the possibility to create protest event easily, which could than be seen and shared to interested people effectively.
Dark Mode
Post & check protest info
Get informed about protest status from real-time posts. Cummunicate with others to share info and opinion.
AR Scene
Experience AR-enhanced protest effects
People could vent their emotions on the virtual objects without doing harm to real-world objects. And virtual effects create even better visual experience!
AR Scene
Check onscreen message & real-time event updates
Location-based onscreen messages makes it easy to check protest updates in real time, without distraction of online information searching.

DESIGN PROCESS

Discover & Define

Secondary Research
Literature Review
Scholoar Interview
Behavior Study
User Interview & Survey
Journey Map

Develop

Design Principle
Brainstorming
Information Architecture
Mid-Fi Prototype
AR Experience Prototype

Testing

Visual Effect Testing
AR Scene Testing
Usability Testing

Deliver

Hi-Fi Mockup
3D Effect
AR Scene

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

To find solutions for protest violence issue, the role of violence in protests should firstly be identified, thus I began the research with the following two questions:

01 What makes a protest successful?

Method: Paper Reading + Scholar Interview

02 How to protest effectively?

Method: Behavior Study + Interview + Survey

01 What makes a protest successful?

Paper Reading

Violence does not contribute to, but interferes the successfulness of protests.

Scholar Interview

Successful protests are organized, disciplined and targeted dialogues.

02 How to protest effectively?

Behavior Study

To know what facilitates the expression of protesters, I conducted a study of the behaviors adopted and equipments used in protests, and ordered them according to thier level of violence.

Interview

10 participants who have protest experience were invited to the interview. Questions about the protest process and effectiveness were asked.

The low efficiency in communication and information updating undermines protest effectiveness.

Survey

Based on behavior study results, a survey examining effective protesting methods was designed. The survey is composed of two parts, and 10 participants were invited.

Violent equipments and behaviors are not helpful for effective protest.

PART 1 |
Behavior Effectiveness
The effectiveness of different protest behavior was ranked by the participants from 1 to 10. Then the average ranking of each behavior was calculated.
| PART 2
Equipment Effectiveness
Each participant was asked to select 5 types of equipments they would bring to a protest. Then the total number of times the equipments were selected was calculated and ranked.

RESEARCH INSIGHTS

1
Most people want to avoid violence and injury in protests.
2
Comminication and information updating issue is throughout the whole protest process.
3
Low communication efficiency leads to chaos, and chaos leads to violence and injury.

Protestor Journey Map

According to research results, protesters experience during an event was then examined in detail:

PROBLEM STATEMENT

How to improve communication and reduce violence in protests?

IDEATION

In response to the communication and violence issue in protests, my design was based on the following two systems. Design principles was set for each system.

01 COMMUNICATING SYSTEM

Principle: Instant + Precise

02 VENTING SYSTEM

Principle: Presentive + Interactive

Brainstorming
  • I started brainstorming from two systems in response to the communication and violence issue.
  • I marked functions of importance with red, which would be prioritized in design.
  • Then I marked methods to support different systems in blue.
  • A question was put forward: which technique best support the venting system? VR or AR?

VR OR AR?

By comparing the characteristics of VR and AR, it was found that AR technology is more applicable in this project. Because protest events are highly dependent on real-world locations.

Virtual Reality

-  Completely Virtual
-  Users are controlled by the system
-  Requires a headset device
-  Enhances only fictional reality
+ Totally immersive

Augamented Reality

+ Location based
+ Users take control of the event
+ Accessible from smart phone
+ Enhances both the virtual and real world
-  Not immersive enough

Information Architecture

With the introduction of AR technology, I then organized the brainstorming ideas into information architecture, and drew the funcion system based on it.

AR Design

Principles:

01 Spatially Fit

02 Informative

03 Interactive

Models should be positioned adequately with appropriate sizes on protest sites.
Information about the protest should be provided in the AR view.
AR effects should respond to users operation so as to serve for the venting purpose.
Visual Effect Testing
I started the AR effects design from sketches. Then photoshop prototypes were made based on sketch testing results. And after that, paper-cut prototype models were tested in real-world scene.
Testing Results
Sketches
  • On-screen protest information is needed.
  • The routes guiding arrow should be more distinguished.
Photoshop Prototype
  • “Message Bubble” could be replaced by app message.
  • “Message Bubble” could be replaced by app message.
Paper Cut Prototype
  • Models should be less “real” to be more distinguishable from real-world objects.
  • Models should be less “real” to be
Scene Building
TOOL: UNITY 3D
I used Unity3D to build the AR scene. In order to test the effect as in a real protest, I chose “Environment Protection” as the topic for the simulated AR scene. Therefore models I used are related to animals, plants and the earth.
Scene Testing
01  Model Testing
The first testing was to mainly to check whether the position of the model shows right in real-world scene.
Model sizes and positions are adequate.
Rotation axes of certain models need to be fixed.
More motions need to be added to certian models.
02  Effect Testing
Then I added smoke and fire effects to the scene, and took test to see whether the effects demonstrate as expected.
Fixed rotation axes problem.
Fire and smoke effects looked good as expected.
Model motions needs further modification.
03  Interaction Testing
In this step I finally tested the interaction function of models and effects.
Modified model motions in detail.
The interaction worked well as expected.

PROTOTYPE

App Wireframe

Usability Testing

5 participants who live in cities and have participated in or witnessed protest events were invited to conduct the testing process. Each of the partcipants were asked to do all the 5 tasks, and consider the 5 questions respectively.

App Iteration

PLACE AR MODEL
CHECK LOCAL PROTEST
LOCATE EVENT

MOCKUP

Shallow Mode

Dark Mode

Take a full AR-enhanced protest experience now:
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Copyright © Shuyu Yin 2022