My team created a digital prototype of the Vuevelo platform (app and website) and completed two case studies for user testing in less than six months. The first case study focused on testing the user-facing app that art lovers would download onto their own devices. During the Havana Biennial Arts Festival in Havana, Cuba, Vuevelo partnered with Cuban performance artist Carlos Martiel for testing purposes.

All of the contextual media files related to Martiel’s Havana performance were uploaded into the Vuevelo app, including two video and audio interviews with the artist, videos and images of his past and related works, and images of Carlos’ own sketches of this new piece. Through Vuevelo, curious onlookers were able to have this additional content at their disposal in real time during the entire one-hour performance.

The second case study for Vuevelo was conducted at the Wolfsonian Museum at Florida International University in Miami. By this time, Team Vuevelo built the upload dashboard to test the functionality of the platform that is exclusively for art providers. As the art provider in this case, the Wolfsonian staff used the website dashboard to upload their contextual media for five art pieces that they wanted to feature on Vuevelo. Feedback was positive and constructive from user testing with museum staff and decision makers.

Feedback for Vuevelo was validating and enthusiastic. The audience at the Havana Biennial was delighted to have Vuevelo available to them, as there was very little signage and information provided during the art festival. They most notably appreciated feeling a one-on-one connection with Carlos by having a full understanding of what his piece was about seemingly directly from him.

For the second user testing session with the Wolfsonian Museum, we built our dashboard so that we could test the functionality of our DIY uploading platform. The Wolfsonian team used our dashboard to upload their media and we received positive and constructive feedback.

Vuevelo is a project that is still in the prototype stage, therefore there are no additional outcomes to note as of yet. We will continue to iterate by conducting more users tests with more partners to finalize an MVP.

Vuevelo could not have been created without the Unity game engine, as well as the direct contributions of the artists and curators that provided the supplementary narratives to the main artwork that is being focused on.

Creating an AR platform that is as accessible as possible is the main priority. That said, it has proven imperative to design Vuevelo in a way that enables many devices to run the app. The interface and graphics used must be simple enough to run on iPhone 7 devices, as the majority of iPhone users are not using the most recent Apple device. This goal of wide accessibility added a few more hurdles to our design process, but ultimately we were able to create a dynamic design that works and is appealing. Given the superior capability of iPhone 12, I recommend restraint in designing solely for iPhone 12 users so that a wider audience can enjoy the experience.

Another major challenge for AR developers to keep in mind is the ability to create an accurate location-based experience at a specific latitude, longitude, and altitude. Apple's AR Kit is the leading AR software, and in its most recent iteration of AR Kit 5, they launched the "Location Anchors" feature—but it only applies to major landmarks in major cities (i.e., Times Square). Although this is an improvement, there is still more work to be done in order to achieve precision for all geographical points. Visual target activation is still the most reliable way to generate an AR experience.

Thanks to this project, I am now pursuing a public art AR platform for outdoor experiences, because AR tends to perform best for most audiences in vast open spaces. I will continue to iterate by conducting more user tests with more partners to finalize an MVP.