Unseal

This project is a collaboration with the Southern District Council, aiming to promote the Southern District Literary Trail. The trail consists of historical locations and footprints associated with five notable figures in the contemporary Chinese literature circle. One of these figures is Cai Yuanpei, a renowned Chinese educator and former president of Peking University. His grave serves as one of the tourist attractions along the trail.

The app is designed to represent and extend the concept of the sundial sculpture, incorporating the ideas of time and self-evaluation. It aims to provide a unique and immersive experience that allows users to explore and engage with these themes in a digital environment.

To begin the journey, users can roll the device to adjust the time marking on the virtual sundial within the app. This interaction triggers the next step or stage of the journey based on the time reading selected by the user. This creative and interactive feature adds an engaging element to the app, immersing users in a unique experience that progresses with their chosen time setting.

Based on the time reading from the previous step, a memory (photo) is retrieved either from the bundled social platform or the device library within the app. Users can then assign a mood and provide a comment to accompany the memory. Once the mood and comment are added, the user has the option to save the memory within the app. This feature allows users to create a personal collection of memories associated with different time periods, enhancing the overall experience and providing a sense of nostalgia and reflection.

After several instances of saving memories, these life moments are plotted on a timeline within the app. Over time, these memories form a comprehensive mood landscape for the user, showcasing their personal emotional journey. In addition to the personal timeline, there is also a public timeline that collects memories from others (optional) to co-create a holistic mood view based on the wider public or society. This feature allows users to gain insights into the collective emotions and experiences of the community, fostering a sense of connection and shared understanding.

A participatory workshop was conducted with six participants as part of the project's development process. The objective of the workshop was to test the suggested feature approaches in a real-world setting before proceeding to the prototype stage. Throughout the workshop, careful observations were made regarding the participants' mood and level of engagement as they interacted with different approaches of the feature. This hands-on testing allowed for valuable insights and feedback, informing the further refinement and development of the feature for optimal user experience.

The app is designed primarily for leisure and promotional usage, intended to be used outdoors while visiting the designated location. Given the nature of outdoor usage, it is preferable to have a short task-killing time.

Since the sculpture has already been installed in the place before the project started, it is crucial to maintain consistency and align the approach with the overall concept. By ensuring that the app's features and interactions are relevant to the concept of the sculpture, a holistic package and story can be created. This consistency will enhance the user experience, allowing visitors to engage with both the physical sculpture and the app seamlessly, reinforcing the intended concept and message behind the installation.

To ensure that users can easily understand the context and meaning of the feature, it is important to make it concrete and straightforward.

While ensuring the feature's context is easy to understand, it is also important to aim for a deep impact on users that further enhances the concept of "self-review." The feature should not only be easily grasped but also capable of eliciting strong emotions and capturing users' attention. By creating a compelling and immersive experience, the feature can successfully hook into users' feelings and generate a sense of attraction or fascination.

Considering the real client project and the desire to eliminate unnecessary and impractical design, it is essential to consider the estimation of various factors such as complexity and technology.