Overview
In Ready Player One movie, on the way towards the destination – last gates that give access to the Easter Egg, there are three milestones that the player must hit. These milestones are represented in the form of three keys: copper, jade, and crystal, which should open each of the gates. The gates are allegorical lessons that the player learns on his way to the last destination while gaining more wisdom and power.
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The purpose of this project is to replicate the player’s journey but on a smaller scale, so that the viewer can understand the main concept of the journey and the allegorical value of each milestone that the player hits. The final destination is the last gate that would lead the player to the Easter Egg – the symbol of rebirth, hope, and possibility.
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The crossroads stone has been very popular in Slavic folklore, and I wanted to incorporate it into the theme as a symbol of dilemma in decision-making. Regardless of the chosen path, there will always be a tricky riddle that will accompany this path, which could either fail you or further assist you in your journey.
Develop
Assets:
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Castle Gates and Doors
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Three different keys: copper, jade, and crystal:
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Copper - The Race / Drive Backward
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Jade - The Shining / Dance with Karen Underwood
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Crystal - Play Adventure / Find Warren Robinett's Easter Egg
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Callouts with titles
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Easter egg
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Crossroads stone
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Background music: Siren - Underwater Ethereal Ambient Music for Relaxation and Meditation
Sketches and Visual Inspirations:
Deliver
UX and XR design considerations:
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The curvy title on the top of the scene welcomes the visitors so that they are aware of where they are: Decisions Crossroads.
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When the user is initially exposed to the scene, they see 1-2-3 stages that they must follow.
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Gradually, there appear bouncing arrows to grab attention, and three separate microcopy call-to-action texts that tell the user what to do, such as: “Tap of the Copper Key”.
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Inputs: tapping and sometimes walking further from or closer to the objects.
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Outputs: dynamic texts that appear and/or disappear within a certain time span, visual effects that happen after the user taps on different keys.
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To ensure that the user does not get confused while trying to navigate in a large, augmented space, I’ve positioned different design elements such as text and objects not too far from one another. And to maintain the 3D experience, I kept a small distance in a Z-axis between the texts and objects.
Takeaways
Recap and Next Steps:
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I consider this project a flawed success because there is a space for improvement based on the already built foundation.
What worked well:
I was able to utilize Adobe Illustrator to clear the 2D images of backgrounds and create titles/headings and call-to-action texts that I later added to the scene.
Assigning behaviors to different objects and texts was manageable, for example, due to the delay feature, it was possible to introduce different stages gradually: the flower comes first, and then the egg, and after that, it gets larger and remains in place while the flower is spinning. The duration is also a very helpful feature in Adobe Aero because in some instances it allows to slow down the process of appearing and disappearing objects and texts – this is especially important when the user needs more time to get familiarized with the environment and to read through before texts/objects move to another location or disappear.
Pins were another helpful feature that allowed to manage texts and object in a way that they can move to a certain destination, such as further or closer. It significantly added to the visual effect and experience in the scene.
The Aha moment:
There was more than one epiphany during this project, because Adobe Aero is a newly introduced tool for me. And I am sure, if I get to explore and experiment with it more, there will be much more of the Aha moments from the technical perspective.
From the UX perspective, some of the surprising revelations came through the validation activity – originally the lack of onboarding clues and its significant role were not that apparent to me in this scene.
​Possible improvements:
​Based on the designed journey map, the project’s voice and tone, and users’ feedback, this project could potentially be improved further in the following manner:
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Give more control to the user, enabling them to return to the previous stage if they overlooked some important information, such as verbal insights/texts that come out of each of the doors, or initial 1-2-3 instructions – being more forgiving with time and missed opportunities.
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Add narration that will be heard more prominently than the background music, and enable the users to mute or activate the narration when they see fit - this technical consideration is something that needs to be further explored and learned.
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The size of the scene could be half the size of that of a human if explored in smaller physical spaces such as coffee shops or small classrooms.