Product Design / Technical
Infinity Mirror
Interactive Installation created to help Sheridan Life Radio (SLR) gain traction to their radio station.
Timeframe
Sept. 2019 - Dec. 2019
My Role
UX Researcher, Developer
Platform
Physical Installation
Tools
Arduino
Where the story begins
During my post-grad, my tech studio instructor offered a project for the radio station. The Program Director wanted to bring awareness and listeners to the station - in parallel of completing it as a class project. The PD wanted to use an NFC sticker on a poster that direct users to the station website, but my classmate and I wanted to expand on this to make the experience more interactive.
Understanding our users & their habits
Interviews
The first step we proceeded to do was understand students at Sheridan College. We used free time from our schedule to observe people in popular areas of the school.
We refrained from interviewing people who listen to the radio station, because there are less than 10 people who listen to the station according to the Program Director.
Research Suggestions
The first step we proceeded to do was understand students at Sheridan College. We used free time from our schedule to observe people in popular areas of the school.
We refrained from interviewing people who listen to the radio station, because there are less than 10 people who listen to the station according to the Program Director.
Researching exisiting products
We then gathered our data and made suggestions towards what type of technology satisfies their needs. We looked for life-size projects with lot of lights. We were inspired by Christmas lights, projects from famous agencies like Jam3, and video on Youtube.
Success metrics with Stakeholders
When meeting with the Program Director, we wanted to get an idea as to what their expectations are for the project, express our capabilities, and their goals to grasp the bigger picture at hand.
Putting our clients needs & findings together
Sketching the model
Initially, we wanted people to go through a journey of a lifesize mirror with LED lights. We added the NFC sticker to lead users to the website to stream the radio station.
Prototype
Once the scope of the project was approved by our client, we moved forward by dissecting the functionalities of the mirror by creating mini prototypes to combining them all together.
Scaling down the project
The scope of the project had to be scaled down due to errors in our process.
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The LED banner had to be removed due to the small budget
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The mini infinity tunnel was out of stock and extended our launch date
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The lights in the mirror can only be triggered once due to the complexity of the code above our level of understanding
MVP results
From the jump, we had people highly intrigued with the infinity mirror. We presented it at our grad show and a hackathon to see how people would interact. A lot of people were instantly pulled to the size of the mirror. Some weren’t sure how to interact since there are a lot of lights and patterns, but in all we were able to add in the wow factor.
Small steps lead to big changes
We found several things interesting about the development of the mirror. Our initial ideas was broken down due to the lack of development experience we had, the tight deadline of the project, and the little to no budget. However, we realized that people only care about things at face value and find flashy things exciting.
Surprisingly enough, building the physical mirror didn’t take a lot of work; teaching us the best things in life are simple.
Other projects
An early prototype testing interactive components of the mirror.
sketches of the user interaction with the mirror.