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Digital Exhibition for F STUDIO
To create a virtual interactive exhibition to featuring emerging Designers' work to the audiences. Researching and creating a digital exhibition that pivots the design languages of the physical store into digital with AR and VR interaction. To display Designers' work with almost no waste and a fresh way for Designers to interact with the audiences.
CHALLENGE:
To bring back in-person shopping and visiting exhibition experiences during the Covid pandemic. "According to Forbe's report on e-commerce landscape statistics, 62% of global consumers shop online more now than they did pre-COVID-19 (McKinsey). However, 91% of shoppers say they miss in-store shopping (incisive) and demand a better interactive online shopping experience (Forbes, 2020)." (Research from Uyen Truong)
SOLUTION:
By using self-taught 3D digital skills, the team decided to create a digital exhibition that pivots the design language of the physical store into a virtual interactive showroom.
Role:
3D Modelers/Interaction designer/AR developer
TIMELINE
10 weeks
F STUDIO DIGITAL SHOWROOM AD CONTENT
AR RESEARCH



IoDF x Machine-A AR Showroom on Instagram
Institute of Digital Fashion created an AR store environment for Machine_A to promote the London Fashion Week collections of designers.
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Real-life walking experience inside the AR showroom with mobile device
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Interactive buttons such as designers' info button - when clicking a window of designers' info pop-out
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Products/Designers' design images
CONCEPT

PROCESS
Starting showroom modeling in Blender first

INTERACTIVE BUTTON UI DESIGN

Play button UI - using basic triangle shape to emphasize that click to play the book open animation.


Designer display screen UI - using number to emphasize that click to switches designer's images
Designer information UI - using first letter of information to emphasize that click to see the designer's information
After modeling in Blender, I start bringing everything into Spark AR and preparing the models to publish as an Instagram filter.
PROPOSED WORKFLOW

INTERACTION DISPLAY
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Click to open the door
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Walk in the showroom and start the flow
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Click to open designer info window
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Each designer get 2 screens to display
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Featuring a number pad button for audiences to switch between images, also to create maximum image capacity for designers
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Featuring the Debut book in the middle of the showroom
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Click the book open button to open the book and see the contents inside
DIGITAL EXHIBITION DATA(AR VERSION)

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The filter has good impressions, according to the data, there are 7.4k impressions
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Compared to the impressions, the captures, saves, and shares are low
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The target customers of F Studio are Asian women from age 18-26. According to the data the filter had attract the right customers.

The team also post a short video in Instagram Reel to show audiences how to walk around the showroom.

COMMENTS ON THE FILTER/INSTAGRAM POST
i love this ❤️❤️❤️
🖤🖤🖤👏🏻
👏👏👏
Congratulations!
This is really cool
🔥🔥🔥 futurism
These data were collected after 1 week of publishing the filter, reel video, and other content. We look through the data and we found that:
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The filter had quite a lot of impressions, but not much share and captures
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Most of the captures were by the team member when we testing out the filter
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The filter does not bring a lot of traffic or followers to us
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Even the Reel video brings more traffic than the filter
After having conversations with friends that we share the filter with, we found out why:
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The "walking experience" filter is new to them. They have no idea that you can walk into the showroom
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We thought our reel video will help audiences to understand how the filter works. But people still had no idea that the interactive button is working
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People are lazy to get up and walk. They rather just watch the reel video and said "it's cool or congratulations! "
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Because of the Instagram filter policy, we couldn't link to the website inside the filter. That might also confused people on what we are trying to do
SOLUTIONS
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Publishing VR version - which people can simply visit through their devices by click on their mouse/phone screen rather than physically walking
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Having a simple shopping button on shopping page of each designer's display design
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Creating help menu in the very beginning, using screen - record with captions to guide users on the interaction part
VR EXHIBITION

In the VR exhibition, because there's not many limitations as the Instagram filter does, we get to bring up the quality and improve the user experience...

RED represents updates and improvements from the AR version
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Bring the start point indoor
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Featuring start menu and help menu as every app/game does
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Using instruction videos + captions on the button to guide users
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Adding WHY SHOP DIGITAL FASHION to explain to audience what we are doing

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Simply left-click and drag to look around inside the showroom
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Simply left-click on the floor to walk around the showroom
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Click on the display screen to teleport the camera close to the screen in order to get a better view of the render images.
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Click on the number to switch between designer posted images
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Click on the book open button to open up the book
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Click on the shopping cart button to visit to shopping page
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Click on the designer info button to see the designer's information



Baked textures on every object to get a realistic view and also a smooth performance on each device
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CONCLUSION
This was my second time working on the virtual interactive showroom. Different from the first time, this new project has an AR version with more interaction and a business focus. Instead of the VR version, using self-taught new skills in Spark AR, we successfully bring the showroom onto one of the most famous social media platforms - Instagram. We also feature a “walking" experience in the AR version to let customers walk inside the showroom with a unique experience. Also, with my experience in my previous showroom, I understand how important that performance is. In this F Studio project, I have paid attention to the performance of the showroom without losing the quality. Both AR/VR versions run smoothly on all kinds of devices.
It was a great experience working with the F Studio team on this project. I improved and learned a lot along with the team through the project.
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Graphic & Art Direction: Uyen Truong
AR/VR Developer: Liqian Zhang
Interactive Button Design: Liqian Zhang
AD Content: Uyen Truong
UX UI Research: Liqian Zhang + Uyen Truong
Photos: Courtesy of F STUDIO Designers
Software: SparkAR, Verge 3D, Blender, CLO3D
Stock Images: Unsplash & Adobe Stock Images
Special thanks: Team F Studio