Chose a Technology Platform to Create a Futuristic Media

FINAL Description:

For your written Final, please do a writeup which covers the below topics and questions. It should be at least 2-3 pages, single spaced, with the “rubric” being less how “cool”, or “awesome”, or probable your futuristic AR or VR platform idea may be, and more about how you see your idea engaging people and society on a larger, beyond the individual level. In short, we are looking to understand how deeply you can think about these newer forms of media that are just over the horizon, and which you will be using, and even creating, in the near future. Chose a Technology Platform to Create a Futuristic Media Experience, either:

AR (Augmented Reality)VR (Virtual Reality)What is the hardware to be like for your chosen futuristic platform? Will it use some kind of glasses, hoods, covers, wearable computing, other body modifications? You can start with an initial, generalized list of things and then come back and modify it as your idea takes on more detail below. Conceptualize an experience for your chosen platform. Keep this within the realm of some sort of media and entertainment per the scope of this class, and it should be mentioned that justification for this kind of project resides within the fact that advertising itself is fast becoming part and parcel of the very media it originates from. Meaning, advertising as a “stand alone” genre of (“pop”) media is become less platform independent, and more an aspect of the very platform itself…Just think about Facebook as an app: it delivers an interactive experience, but the advertising pushed to you via the News Feed is pretty much the very News Feed itself! Sure, it has similarities to past print advertising, which placed ads within blocks of other text like in a newspaper or magazine, and also has similarities to old school web page advertising with “web banners”, etc, but the power of FB’s algorithms and the News Feed display, as a major component of the FB app on a whole, means that it is difficult to parse out what is experiential per the app, and what constitutes “separate” advertising from the News Feed. In short, they are nearly one and the same.So, back to the Final here, what do you want your experience to be? Will it predominantly be entertainment focused (sports, games, music, film related)? Or, maybe it will be fashion orientated, or social, or news (informative, or pop-gossip), or financial (think of all the social/financial upheaval that happened after the Robinhood investment app came out, as an example), or fitness, or….??? The playing field here is limitless, so have a lot of fun coming up with something really unique, even if it is slightly improbable that it’d become reality any time soon!

How will users navigate and exist within your experience?

Now, start thinking more practically: how will a future user (say, YOUR kids, or grandkids!) interact and navigate within the futuristic experience you are conceptualizing. How and what will people see and interact with “inside” of your platform?

What are the possible ‘digital objects’ shown and interacted with inside of your experience?

For instance, if your idea is within the platform of AR, what are the digital objects going to be like that people interact with wherever/whenever your experience is available? Are they moving? Static or “still”? Do they move as the user moves? Do they materialize out of nowhere, or they already “there” when the user “opens” your experience?

Who is your ideal user?

Briefly describe who would be your ideal user? This often called a “Persona” in the design industry (especially within the User Experience Design realm, also denoted as UX/UI). Who are they? Where are they located (physically)? What is their age, gender identification, economic position, hobbies, and other generalized interests and aspects?

Outline and describe one or more “use case” scenarios with social implications:

Come up with a narrative describing how a future user interacts with your experience, while also trying to imagine what the possible (larger) social implications may be for it.

Do you feel any given future user will primarily use your experience the way you intend, or will (could) they use it in a manner that is far (or even not so far, but qualitatively) different from your intended use? What would be BOTH the intended uses of your experience, and the possible ‘worst case’ + ‘best case’ scenarios with the use and ‘misuse’ of your experience?

This is potentially the most interesting part of this exercise, and the most difficult, because it is often very hard to conceptualize how people may use your product or creation, and how they may use it for their own (sometimes nefarious!) goals…People are VERY creative on a whole, and will always find ways of using your creations in ways you never thought were possible. This is part of the fun, and part of the danger, of being a media maker out there IRL 🙂