CASE STUDY: VITAGEM
Project In Immersive Media 1 at George Brown College
User Researcher & Product Manager
October 2022
Overview: Vitagem is an augmented reality application that scans and identifies nutritional data of a certain food or meal using a mobile device camera. By providing an immersive experience through augmented reality, Vitagem assists users in finding food that are best for their overall health objectives or personal nutrition plan.
This was a project done in my Immersive Media 1 class at George Brown College. I had worked in a group with 3 other members. We had spent 4 weeks completing our AR prototype.
Background: The challenge for this project was to create a brand for a company in an existing industry, and identify meaningful opportunities to implement augmented reality technology. At the end of the given 4 weeks, we were to present our developed AR concept, and a fully working prototype.
Key Achievements:
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Conducted primary and secondary research that provided further insight to the problem.
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Responsible for maintaining the presentation by making sure it fits within the brand expectations.
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Documenting feedback from the professor, and setting project expectations for redesigns.
Phase One: Research
Understanding The Problem
The industry my peers decided to focus on was the health industry. We all agreed that the legibility of nutrition labels were too small to read, which makes it harder for people with impaired vision to read exactly what they’re consuming. Our initial goal was to create an app that allows users to scan nutrition labels, and make the information easier for the user to read.
As the user researcher, I did further research. It came to my attention that another significant problem was consumers not fully understanding how to interpret the nutrition information, and incorporate it into their everyday diet. Primary research was conducted by doing a survey on Google forms. This was done by sending a link to the participants who can answer anonymously. In total, there were 17 responses. Our main target audience were people over the age of 18, with no specificity on gender. The survey was focused on two main topics: legibility of nutrition labels, and understanding the information it provides.
SECONDARY RESEARCH
57.7%
of consumers don't
understand food labels
39.7%
of consumers partially
understand food labels
PRIMARY RESEARCH
SURVEY
Personas
There were two iterations made for the personas. Below, the first iteration design is on the left, and the second (and final) iteration is on the right. After reviewing the first iteration with my professor, it was pointed out that there was a lack of information from the survey that was conducted. I agreed and thought to myself “What was the point of conducting a survey to understand the user, when I am not implementing it to visually show my research?”. So on my second iteration, I included more information from the survey to get a better understanding of our users. I also believe that this makes the personas much more realistic as well.
Another big change that I made was changing the visual design. Looking back at the initial design, it was bland, and most importantly, it didn’t follow the branding of Vitagem. So I included more colours from the branding to give it a more cohesive feeling. I also thought that visually showing some of the survey information through a graph style would make it easier for users to read.
User Journey
There were iterations made for the user journey. With the first iteration, one one user journey was made. At first I thought it would be a lot easier to make a general user journey to represent the users. But then I realized that realistically not every user has the same experiences. Since the research stage is essential for creating a product that best fits its users, it's important to be as realistic as possible when working on user journeys and personas. And so, a user journey was made for each persona that best fits their experiences. Information on the user journey was taken from the personas, and also inspired by people in my personal life.
Phase Two: DESIGN
How does Vitagem use AR technology?
Display Floating Element
3D MODELING, SCENE FUSION, REAL-TIME DISPLAY
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Three-dimensional displays of the nutritional content, eating method, description, etc. of the scanned objects.
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Floating icons for better reader understanding.
Swipe / Walk to get Different Information
MULTI-SENSOR FUSION, REAL-TIME TRACKING
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Distance sensing to view different product information by approaching/surrounding the product or swiping the screen.
WIREFRAME
Phase Three: Final Product
Results & Takeaways
This was the first time I was the sole UX researcher in the group for a class project. It was an eye-opening experience that taught me the importance of asking the right questions.
For my next user research, I am going to ask questions that helps find a solution. After reviewing my survey, I realized that my questions were more for finding out a problem, rather then the solution. I came to learn that asking the right questions not only can open up to new problems that we're not aware of, but it can help us find answers.