UX/UI Design, Mobile App Design, Revenue Development

History x - Augmented Reality Mobile App

Timeline: 3 week hand in hand project with founder/client

Team: Spencer Harris (myself), Jenny Cho, Rachel Storm, Sarah Marston

Methodology: Competitive Analysis, Market Research, Sketching/Wireframing, Revenue Development, User Research, User Interviews, User Flows, Affinity Mapping, Storyboarding, Persona Development, Journey Mapping, Prototyping

Client: History X is a DC based startup focused on engaging users with the knowledge of history through AR exploration with their mobile devices.

Tools: Figma, Miro, Pen/Paper

Objective: Assist the client, founder of History X, in better defining the audience for this application, refine and redesign the existing prototype, and develop revenue stream models to move forward with application release

Intro to history x

History X is a DC startup focused on engaging users with the knowledge of history through AR exploration with their mobile devices.

  • Users can use their mobile devices to access an Augmented Reality version of their city streets and locations to go back in time and view and learn about historical sites

    History X Website

existing ui
research stage

My team and myself began this project by meeting with our client to define their needs, we needed to understand what they wanted the scope of the application to be, and what they needed our assistance with in this developmental stage. From this we decided to take the following steps that could help us define the target audience and understand through their wants and desires what ideas we could return to our client -

  • Screener Surveys

  • User Research Interviews

  • Competitive/Comparative Analysis

  • Persona Development

  • Customer Journey Map

  • Story Boarding

survey results

Our initial screener survey was essentially to find interviewees within our targeted demographic, which were users who would be interested in using this sort of application. These users had to have some interest in historical learning and city exploration, either irl or online.

From this we found a really solid number of interviewees who were big historical learners, with a pretty even split between people who like in person experiences like museums and people who like learning from things like streaming services and YouTube videos.

A key aspect of the History X application was the Augmented Reality viewing and learning tools. From our survey we also wanted to understand what peoples level of experience was with these sort of tools and similar applications like Pokemon Go and Geocache.

Conducting User Interviews and Mapping the Results:

Now that we had a solid group of interviewees I was able to develop an interview plan to guide me through these conversations. I knew we needed to understand a few key aspects like

  • The user’s interest in historical learning

  • Historical categories they are interested in learning

  • Existing mediums they are using to learn about History. (Netflix? Books? Word of Mouth?)

I also had a number of logistical questions that I believed could help my team better target certain aspects of the application in development

  • Transportation methods (car, bike, public transit, walking)

  • Planning for travel (in advance, more spontaneous)

  • Mediums/Places for learning (museums, monuments, online, irl)

  • Past experiences with Augmented Reality

  • Interest in gamified experiences

key takeaways

Filtering experiences is essential for a smooth navigation.

  • History categories/locations/distances

Positive Responses to Gamification Techniques

  • Rewards system, Achievements, Level Progression

Pre-Routed Experiences are a beneficial option

  • Guided personal experiences, and to feel a connection to what they’re learning about

Social aspects incentivizes a sense of community.

  • Share Photos

  • Join group journeys and attend events

  • “Sync with a friend”

From our research interviews we were able to then develop two personas to better understand two different types of user that would be interested in History X.

First we have Cienna

  • She just moved to DC and is looking for a way to explore her new surroundings and make some new friends

  • She is a big history buff and loves to take time to watch documentaries and go to museums

  • She has a packed schedule and wants to learn and see new things in spontaneous moments

Next we have Steve

  • He is a social media content creator and loves having shareable to add to his accounts

  • He is very competitive and likes to compare his achievements with friends and view app analytics

  • He likes to connect with followers and find new ways to branch out his following

Breakdown of Competitive Analysis

In our planning stage my team and I wanted to decide on what sort of competitive apps exist similar to History X, what kind of features these apps are offering, and what if any gaps exist in this market that we could bring to our stakeholders. We were looking at things like -

  • Live map views and geo-tagged locations

  • Share-ability and content built to share on social media sites

  • Community features and group events

  • Gamified features, achievements and in game earning

Now that we had developed our personas and conducted our Heuristics Analysis and defined some key features, I wanted to build our a User Journey Map. I wanted to use my assumptions and research to use in a format that would help our client understand where any roadblocks might occur in the initial rollout. They could then hopefully be prepared for any shortcomings in the app and set a plan for moving forward step by step, rolling out only what is initially necessary.

With the History X team being DC based we knew any sort of shortcoming would probably come within the geographic scope of the application. With something like this application, there would certainly be blocks, neighborhoods, and stories missed with initial rollout, but we definitely want to leave anyone’s story left out. The touch-points of the application will have to be promotion both from the app communication team itself, but more importantly from users inviting new users to join. The stakeholder and our own concerns were how to keep users inviting friends and coming back to the app. 

mid project and planning for next steps

My team was coming to a mid point where we had conducted all of the necessary research to be able to meet again with our stakeholder and propose some of our ideas. The last deliverable before our mid project meeting we wanted to get together was a storyboard. We wanted to bring our personas into a place where their story can be told and related to.

revenue stream developnment

In meeting with our stakeholder he made it clear that the next task he needed assistance with was developing some sort of revenue stream from History X. His initial ideas for revenue models were surrounding B2B models, but he didn’t have any sort of plan flushed out. We set out to brainstorm some revenue streams that could be both B2B and B2C. 

revenue model: paid exclusive access

We took our survey results and pow wow’d as a team, deciding on developing the infrastructure for a paid exclusive access system that allows users sites, locations, routes and experiences that base level users do not have access to. To better explain this we built out user flows showing where these models could be implemented into the existing architecture.

As seen above, when users are in a map view or looking at pre-routed experiences they will occasionally come into contact with a paywall. This paywall will prompt them to join a VIP membership monthly plan allowing them unlimited access to all features, routes, and experiences. A key part of this process is the Sign Up and Onboarding experience, which we developed a separate user flow for as seen below.

prototype integration

View prototype on YouTube