Design Document: Not Getting Lost in the PATH
- Who We Are
- Our names are Liam Cristello, Erin Wang, Chase Herman, and Amy Liu. We are four students who combined to create our VR/360 experience, which we call “Not Getting Lost in the PATH”, our ode to Toronto’s famously confusing PATH underground system.
- Story: What’s your story? How does it address the theme “The Toronto that is Not” that Karen challenged you with?
- Since arriving in Toronto, all of our guest speakers who have said anything about the PATH mentioned that they constantly get lost, even though they are locals from the city. Our project helps to guide the user on a journey through the PATH with a bit of a fun twist that instead of basic directions, clues are given to hint at where to go. This could have easily been a simple navigation tool, but this method is more entertaining and immersive for the user. This prototype guides the user on a lone path, but if given the time, this could be a VR map of the entire PATH that could potentially even act as a PATH GPS.
- Audience: Who is your audience?
- Our main audience is locals to Toronto who want to view a side of the city they usually do not see, being the underground maze of the PATH. Our audience also includes newcomers to Toronto so they have a general idea of how the PATH works while they’re here, and generally anyone looking for an interesting VR experience.
- Takeaway: What do you expect your audience will take away from this experience?
- We expect our audience will have a new appreciation for the PATH, seeing the kind of community that lives in the general chaos down there, and how navigation of it is challenging yet incredibly rewarding with fast travel throughout the city. We also think a general appreciation of city planning in general will be achieved, as viewers marvel at the level of engineering that went into constructing this kind of project.
- Why VR? What unique affordances does 360 video and/or VR offer that makes possible the story you are trying to tell?
- VR and 360 video make the user feel like they are actually in the PATH. Without VR, the user is forced to look at the PATH from one angle, which hinders their sense of direction in the PATH and prohibits them from exploring all possible options for routes to take.
- Process Documentation: Provide evidence of your research and design process. Describe your original concept and how it changed through iteration. Discuss what you learned through the ideation/design, iteration of your ideation/design, production, post-production, and describe the tools you chose to use and why you chose to use them and what you learned along the way (e.g. Fader vs. Unity)
- Originally, we didn’t think this was going to be the project. There were four iterations of projects that we had lined up.
- First of all, we had the idea to have people view different aspects of Toronto, but navigate through these ideas by using an elevator. It takes the idea that an elevator, door, or other opening can take you to a new world. This idea has been a bit of a trope in several fantasy works over the years, and we felt it would make a decent fit for this project.
- First of all, we had the idea to have people view different aspects of Toronto, but navigate through these ideas by using an elevator. It takes the idea that an elevator, door, or other opening can take you to a new world. This idea has been a bit of a trope in several fantasy works over the years, and we felt it would make a decent fit for this project.
- Originally, we didn’t think this was going to be the project. There were four iterations of projects that we had lined up.
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- Our second idea also involved showing different aspects of Toronto. However, we figured it would be cool to show it in a pop-up book setting, where users can flip the pages and get a sense of the culture of Toronto in VR. The big issue with this project is that it would work out much more in an augmented reality project, and does not incorporate the 360 view much at all. This is one of the most important parts of using 360 video because otherwise it might as well just be a well edited traditional video.
- Our second idea also involved showing different aspects of Toronto. However, we figured it would be cool to show it in a pop-up book setting, where users can flip the pages and get a sense of the culture of Toronto in VR. The big issue with this project is that it would work out much more in an augmented reality project, and does not incorporate the 360 view much at all. This is one of the most important parts of using 360 video because otherwise it might as well just be a well edited traditional video.
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- The third idea for our group project was to have different views of Toronto through windows that the viewer could look through and see different stories for people in Toronto. The problem here was the interaction. Even though we could definitely provide a 360 view, it would be difficult to provide interactions for the user, and it could distance the user from the experience.
- The third idea for our group project was to have different views of Toronto through windows that the viewer could look through and see different stories for people in Toronto. The problem here was the interaction. Even though we could definitely provide a 360 view, it would be difficult to provide interactions for the user, and it could distance the user from the experience.
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- Our final idea was to have the viewer go through the PATH, but to have all of the signs blacked out and/or in a different language. We had a bunch of ideas for this one, with maybe having a “choose your own adventure” aspect, give the user prompts as to where to go, have the signs in a weird language and have users figure it out, or just have everything blacked out and give the user things to do. It was definitely the most open ended idea of the set, but it proved to be the one that piqued our interest.
- Our final idea was to have the viewer go through the PATH, but to have all of the signs blacked out and/or in a different language. We had a bunch of ideas for this one, with maybe having a “choose your own adventure” aspect, give the user prompts as to where to go, have the signs in a weird language and have users figure it out, or just have everything blacked out and give the user things to do. It was definitely the most open ended idea of the set, but it proved to be the one that piqued our interest.
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- Out of these four, the PATH idea seemed the most interesting and the most feasible project. From here, we had to refine this set of ideas into one coherent project. We decided that the “choose your own adventure” was an interesting concept, but that it wasn’t feasible for a final product. Instead, we decided to guide the user along one path for this specific demo, but if this were a coherent VR experience of the entire PATH, people could choose where they wanted to go. From here, we confirmed that this was our top choice for a project.
- We presented the PATH idea knowing that it might not seem like the greatest project. There definitely isn’t as much substance at first glance, so upon review, we were prepared to accept our plan B, which was the elevator idea. However, things went well when discussing our ideas to the class, so it was looking like we would get to go down to the PATH after all.
- After revising a few small details based on Karen’s advice, we did a bit of work on Thursday prior to Friday’s shoot. We took some sample footage from the PATH, and drew up a few potential routes for the prototype. In the picture below, each color represents one of these routes through the PATH.
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- Our plan from the start was to end at First Canadian Place for this demo because it is our secondary meeting point for the group, and it is important that people be able to know their way back to this point. As stated in our long term plans, a finished product could take the user anywhere, and not just to First Canadian Place.
- This second image is of the final path that we ended up taking. In the first plan, arrows represented points for 360 video, but in this route, they are represented by the numbers circled.
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- We ended up making that big hook around to St Andrew’s Subway Station for a couple reasons, even though it seems like a waste of time. First of all, it details that even if you take one wrong turn in the PATH, places often connect in multiple ways, so it is clear that you can still make it to your destination. Second, it allows for some of the more fun clues of the set, which helps to engage the user. Third, the ending felt very abrupt and linear the way it was, so we felt that bringing the user to a point where they needed to turn was necessary to get our point across.
- After gathering footage, we needed to use Fader to overlay the text and to provide visuals telling the viewer what they need to do. We didn’t want the viewer to just see text, so we decided to give each area a symbol to represent the name of the area and give the viewer a better visual experience. A guide of the symbols is shown below.
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- We also mapped out the route in a diagram to guide how we wanted to edit the clips of 360 video together. This is shown below.
- We also mapped out the route in a diagram to guide how we wanted to edit the clips of 360 video together. This is shown below.
- Big picture vision. A prototype is just a starting point. Imagine you had more time and resources to continue working on the project, where would you like to take it?
- As mentioned in the “Story” section, our long-term plan would be to flesh out the “choose your own adventure” aspect of this project. We’d like to increase the level of interactivity and variation by adding more paths the player is allowed to take through the PATH, getting actually lost and needing to find their way back to First Canadian Place in a much more dynamic setting. We feel with more ways to get lost, we’d be able to not only create a richer immersive experience, but also more accurately portray what going through the PATH is actually like.
- We’d also like to rehaul the hint system a bit. Right now, it mainly revolves around reading text boxes overlayed on screen, but that can be a bit straining on the eyes in a VR headset, so we’d like to change how the hints are displayed. Maybe some kind of static closed captioning on the bottom of the screen so no matter your head movements it would always remain stable.
- Experience Map
Stimulus (Objective) | Response (Subjective) | |||||
See | Hear | Touch | Smell | Taste | Emotional State | |
Attraction | Watches demo video, enticed to try full experience | Hear pitch about VR experience of the PATH | Clicking and dragging through demo video | N/A | N/A | Intrigued, wanting to try full experience for self |
Entry | Experience begins to take up field of view as user puts on headset | Hear sounds of experience fade in, background noise of Union Station | Putting headset on head | Excited as experience begins, ready to see what awaits them | ||
Engagement | Halls and other areas of PATH, wandering around, watching people going about their day | Hearing miscellaneous noises of the PATH, foot traffic and conversations as the day goes on | Holding controllers in hands, in future use button inputs to select path to take | Engaged with experience, fully immersed in walking through and experiencing the phenomenon of getting lost in the PATH | ||
Exit | Sees video in classroom of our group congratulating user, then sees experience disappear as user removes headset. | Hears “Congratulations!” and the sound fading as the user removes the headset | Taking headset off head | Glad to have experienced, ready to go take a real walk in the PATH with this newfound perspective | ||
Extension | Taking a real walk through the PATH and taking in the sights for themselves | Hearing the bustling sounds of the PATH for themselves in the real experience | Going and buying food/goods in the PATH | Excitement for reliving the VR experience |
- Final Thoughts
- We were really happy with how this project turned out. We got a lot of positive feedback, and plenty of good, constructive feedback we can use to theoretically improve this project in the future. It was a lot of fun working with 360 video, and finally getting to use our classroom Vive headset, and it all paid off. This was a fantastic way to end our term in Toronto. Next stop, Sheffield!
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