Pounamu Pathway
Pounamu Pathway is a is an immersive storytelling experience taking travelers across the West Coast/Te Tai o Poutini of Aotearoa, New Zealand. Featuring 4 visitor experience hubs created by Wētā Workshop, linked by a companion app developed by CerebralFix, the Pounamu Pathway tells stories of the early Māori history and the significance of Pounamu.
The Pounamu Pathway companion app provides a map of locations to visit, providing additional information and location based experiences such as Augmented Reality (AR) mini games on arrival. Users can customize their pathway and plan their journey along the coast, and review their journey.
TASKS
Game Design, UX Design, Wireframing, Playtesting
2022 - 2023
DATE
Inspired by CerebralFix's previous work on international theme parks - with clients such as Universal and Disney - the Pounamu Pathway companion app was conceived as a way to entertain and guide tourists exploring the West Coast/Te Tai o Poutini. The main purpose was to provide more places for tourists to visit other than simply the largest attractions such as Punakaiki and Aoraki/Mt Cook, encouraging longer stays in the region. To accomplish this, Pounamu Pathway would work with the local iwi and provide a platform for them to tell the lesser known stories and legends of the area.
Client Communications
The client was uncertain what content they wanted to put onto the app, not only in terms of which locations they wanted to display, but also what to say about those locations.
I hosted a brainstorming session with the client to identify what was important to them and draft a list of requirements for the app's content fields as a result.
Our goal was always to empower Ngai Tahu to share their own stories, and so we worked on an API to allow them to upload new Pou Whenua to the app.
Involving them in the process helped familiarize them with format. In addition I create a Pou template to fill in with the level of information detail they would need to provide to fill the app with sufficient content.
User Flows
I designed the app following design conventions of map and tourism applications, displaying the information the client would provide.
The app featured a map of the entire west coast of the south island, with GPS co-ordinates that would unlock content when users were in close proximity to the locations of interest.
However the app also needed to function assuming the user declined to provide location permissions on their device, so I also designed a fallback system to allow these users to participate in the journey.
Wireframes & Mockups
I was responsible for creating wireframes and mockups of all user flows and intended features. They were used to communicate both visual and functional intent to the team and client.
This project was one of the first to extensively use Figma within the company. As one of the only game designers with UX knowledge I had to develop new processes for communication during this production.
I went through several rounds of iteration, attempting to match the visual style and functionality of other contemporary tourism applications. My goal was to lean on existing user tech literacy to reduce the strain on older users, as this was a target demographic of the tourism campaign. I was heavily inspired by map applications as I expected tourists to be utilizing online maps while visiting New Zealand and thus it would be the most familiar and approachable control scheme for these users.
After accounting for all necessary design features these screens would then be handed off to the art team where a 2D artist would stylise and polish as the final iterations. During the handover to the art team I lost some oversight due to a production issue, and some aspects were changed from the design as a result.
I created Figma prototypes to demonstrate the intended functionality so I could conduct some user tests.
Our team was developing the application within the Unity engine in order to support seamless Augmented Reality gameplay, but this also resulted in some significant UI/UX limitations.
This meant we were using the Unity UI system rather than a purpose built app development engine. As a result some functionality that would be easy to implement on other apps was unusually difficult in our instance. I conducted further user tests with new prototypes to reflect these changes.
Augmented Reality Scavenger Hunt
In addition to the design of the Pounamu Pathway app I was also tasked with designing an AR experience to take place inside Māwhera Pā, for children.
My instructions were to limit the experience to areas exterior to the main Weta Workshop exhibition hall, so as not to distract audiences within the exhibit. In addition, I identified that the exterior of the building was inappropriate for unsupervised children due to immediate proximity to both a highway and railway crossing, and thus gameplay must remain inside the Māwhera Pā building. This left only a Lobby and Gift Shop as potential spaces for the experience.
With the limited resources and design constraints, I was able to design an effective AR experience that met all of the criteria.
A perspective based AR scavenger hunt game, where several scannable codes were to be installed within the lobby and gift shop that when when viewed from the the right angle would align and be scannable. The codes would be designed to be placed lower to the ground, at eye level for children.
After finding a code, an animation would play on the camera pass through to reward the children for finding the hidden code. Finding all of the codes would also let the child redeem a free shard of Pounamu from the gift store.
Creating paper prototypes was valuable in identifying some early issues such as line thickness deteriorating over distance.
I tested this idea using printed QR codes of different sizes, then aligning them with my camera. This helped to get a sense of scale we would need to print codes at.
Using architectural renders provided by the client, I was able to determine usable locations for the scavenger hunt. This had to be done remotely as I rarely had opportunities to be on site. I chose locations that would be less desirable real-estate for an adult to be walking through, to minimize potential disruption to other visitors.
Due to technical and logistical difficulties, we redesigned the final codes into stylish single piece woven mats. While this meant losing the perspective element of the puzzle, it was significantly easier to install remotely. In addition this allowed us to introduce more of a physicality to the game, allowing non-app children to participate. The woven mats also matched the decor of the building so as not to stand out jarringly to non-participants, but instead as a pleasant discovery.
and the Apple App Store.
Pounamu Pathway is available on Google Play
Pounamu Pathway Māwhera Pā: AR experience is available on site at 45 Tainui Street, Greymouth, Monday to Sunday from 9am.
