Case Study: JFK AR Experience at the Michigan Union

The Problem

There’s a plaque on the outside of the Michigan Union that notes that JFK spoke on the steps of the Union in 1960 during his campaign. He established the basis for the Peace Corps. It’s also mentioned on campus tours and usually appears in university media, but it doesn’t feel impactful.

The primary audience was identified as prospective students and their parents who are touring the University of Michigan Campus

Process

Research

A brief bit of research was conducted before diving further into the project. As it turned out, the University of Michigan had already created a similar experience for the Bicentennial, but there was little documentation, and my professor commented on how “lacking” it was.

Ideation

The question was how to recreate the experience. There were models of JFK available to be found online, but simply throwing a model of him down to talk to you in AR seemed so jarring, like the entirety of Meta’s Metaverse.

Design

I settled on recreating the experience of a pop-up children’s book. The University had several images of his speech and arrival available freely online. I cut up the images to create layering and tried to match elements in the photos with elements still present at the Union. Audio of the event was also easily accessible.

After cutting up the images in Adobe Photoshop, I put them into Adobe Aero. Using the geolocation feature, I could have the experience be present on the steps of the Michigan Union. After aligning the photos, I tested it and discovered a few problems.

First, just hearing JFK speak, not the crowd noise, made it jarring. Second, the steps were hard to see because the photos blocked them and could pose a safety risk. Third, my photo cut-ups and placement were not as good as I had thought.

The first problem’s solution was to add a crowd noise ambiance and make JFK’s speech get louder as you approached where he was.

The second problem’s solution was to have a warning that a step was near. As one of the requirements for the project was to include a safety or accessibility feature, I created some hazard strips in Adobe Illustrator and placed them on the steps.

The third problem was simply a process of trial and error and discovering that Adobe Aero’s placement of objects would slightly shift for every placement of the experience.

Solution

Deliverable

The final deliverables for the project were a presentation covering background information, the problem statement, the storyboard, each iteration, and the final iteration. I have included an embed of the slide deck below this paragraph.

Features

Visual

You see JFK and the Crowd on the Steps of the Michigan Union. Instead of being a footnote or brief mention during a campus tour, you can see JFK and the crowd on the steps of the Michigan Union.

Audio

The user enters the experience hearing crowd ambiance. As the user walks up the steps, the audio of JFK’s speech becomes more and more audible until the user walks up the steps and they see JFK clearly.