Augmented reality overlays
digital information on top of the physical world. By that definition, AR is as
much a physical experience as it is a digital one. It is thus essential that
physicality be considered when designing an AR application. If, for example, an
app is intended to be used for an event, then whoever plans the layout of that
event should take the application into account. A room that is extremely
minimalist, for example, will be difficult to augment. Similarly,
overly-simplistic markers make for poor tracking, and thus will fail as AR
markers.
But it isn’t just about how well
your app can track your markers or environment. Placement of physical objects
will matter too. If you intend for your AR content to be pivoted on a
horizontal plane, then your marker needs to rest on a horizontal surface, such
as a floor, table or pedestal. Otherwise, your content would seem completely
displaced from the physical world, defeating the purpose of marker or environment-based
AR entirely. That being said, adding an additional table to your office/event
hall/ballroom just for the sake of AR will undoubtedly take up space you might
not be willing to give up. That’s why it’s important to weave your AR
experience into the event itself. For example, if the location were a
restaurant, the markers could be the placemats. If it were a venue where
participants are expected to be on their feet most of the time (e.g. a museum),
markers could be stamped onto the floor.
Once you’ve figured out a sneaky
way to embed your markers into your location, there’s the matter of having
people find them. Sometimes, this could be the goal of your AR app
itself—discovering content by scanning everything and anything that looks like
a marker. But more often than not, your app has a specific purpose, registering
on specific markers. So how to go about telling people what images are markers,
and what aren’t?
An easy answer could be to make
your markers look like markers. As with QR codes, no one will mistake a spatter
of black pixels for anything else. But this presents a few problems. Firstly,
it counters what makes a marker ‘cool’. Markers can be just about anything,
meaning you can design them to complement whatever it is you’re augmenting. QR
codes just about complement nothing, so going down that route is a sure way to
ensure whoever’s in charge of aesthetics gets a fit.
One more way to get around the discoverability
problem is by introducing unifying emblems or symbols which immediately inform
the user that what they’re looking at is indeed a marker. Such a solution has
been in use long before AR was mainstream. Marvel Comics, for example, adopted
an AR symbol at the bottom of augmentable
comic-book pages when they launched their Marvel Now imprint. The Brisbane
Festival 2017 also used similar symbols to denote augmentable content.
Still, the best way to encourage
users to discover AR content would probably be to have the app inform them directly
where said content could be found. A catalogue page displaying images of available
markers could be one way of achieving this. Users can browse the catalogue at
their own pace while moving through a space. For a more subtle approach, a ‘hints’
feature could make the entire experience even more engaging and encourage
exploration. This kind of gamification can be taken to another level by
introducing virtual ‘badges’ that can be collected once an AR marker has been
found and triggered.
