PROJECT DESCRIPTION

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For the third HCI project, our group decided to build a "VR Tour Guide" that aids people to travel to different countries through virtual reality. The target audience are anyone who wanted to travel during the COVID-19 period, but were not able to. We would like to give them the opportunity to visit the landmarks they wanted to visit, meet other people who wanted to travel to the same location and even experience the culture of that country. The tour guides will also join the Mozilla Hub VR and guide them through to famous landmarks.

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EXISTING PROJECT & LIMITATIONS

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There are several projects that exist regarding traveling to other countries. The VR created by big companies might even have better graphics with in-depth detail. However, we would like to provide an opportunity to the people to interact with other travellers and feel like they are travelling together. In real world, this might have been a difficult task for those who feel shy to mingle with other travellers. In the VR world we created, they do not have to feel embarrassed at all and can understand more about different cultures as well as the country they will be travelling together.

 

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BRAINSTORMING

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For this project, I was in charge of the brainstorming process, so I have designed the mind map as well as the storyboard. The mind map was separated into three different sections: "The Five Ws", "Key Features" and the "POV". Most of the information are introduced from the previous paragraphs. As for the key features, there will be a professional tour guide available. We also believe that such VR program will help the tour guides to be employed during the COVID-19 period. In addition, the users can select different countries according to their preference where we currently have two different cities with their representative landmarks:

Fort Carre of France and Ancient Rome. 

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STORYBOARD

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The above diagram is the storyboard I have drawn. Steve is someone who used to travel very often, but due to COVID-19 he was not able to visit other countries anymore. One day, he heard his colleagues talking about the VR, so he decided to give it a go. Steve immediately selected Paris, which is his favourite city. He had an actual tour guide to guide him through the places he never visited before. The tour guide explained some interesting information regarding famous landmarks as well. Steve  was also able to meet other people who also joined the VR room, which the link was shared by the tour guide herself. They travelled together and also experienced some new French cultures. Steve has relieved his stress through the VR tour guide. He will be travelling to many different countries in the future.

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WORKING PROTOTYPE

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Rome Prototype Link:                      https://hubs.mozilla.com/scenes/Qwvq9uV

Fort Carre Prototype Link:               https://hubs.mozilla.com/scenes/9uHoUXX

Souvenir Shop Prototype Link:      https://hubs.mozilla.com/scenes/b8inGte

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The images above are the the screenshots of the working prototype created using Spoke by Mozilla Hub. The upper three images are the prototype I was in charge of creating, which is the scene of an Ancient Rome. I have included the Pantheon, Colosseum and a model for town of the ancient Rome. In order to help the users to concentrate to the scene, I have included the 360˚ equirectangular image of the Rome during night time. The users can also take a look at the inside structure of the Colosseum. 

 

Frederic was in charge of editing the Fort Carre VR prototype, which are demonstrated in the second row of images. The users will be able to go around Fort Carre along with the tour guide to take a look both the bottom part as well as the upper part of Fort Carre. The final image is the souvenir shop created by Sammie for the users, so that they can purchase the products or some miniature versions of the landmarks. Further details are discussed in the prototype demo video.

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Prototype Demo

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Prototype Demo Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMdVK-X73vo&ab_channel=FredericOrtega

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REFLECTION​

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Few lessons learned from this project:

• Sometimes implementing a simple model could be visualised in a more eye-catching way than making a complex model. I first tried to create a very complicated prototype by checking all the details of the sketch model inside Mozilla Hub. However, the more I added the components, it was visually less attractive.  

• Narrowing down the target audience, the features, and the purpose of the VR prototype was also important. For instance, we later added variety of features such as sharing "Beer Tasting Experience" in Germany. However, once we noticed that such feature is less realistic, it helped us to focus more on the primary goal of the project and the prototype we wanted to design.

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