Evaluation of my augmented reality

Our work was to make an augmented reality poster for the adverts we made during our last project. Augmented reality is where reality is altered by the use of an app or some sort of software. They use it through all different types of media, such as games like Pokémon go and social media like Snapchat filters. During the last project I made an anti-drug advert for the online websites “drugfreeworld” so I made an anti-drug poster to advertise the website and the advert I made. We had to use an app to make augmented reality. The way that works is that the app will use your camera to scan the image, such as the poster or a place and any video or link what’s connected to the image the video will appear on screen. I made my poster so when it’s scanned by the app my advert will start to appear. We also made a how to guide on how to make a layar. During that I went step by step about saying how I made the layar. I went into detail about how I made it, saying about how you should have it as a Jpeg and how you can make it a jpeg by going into Photoshop and exporting the image as a jpeg. I did also say you had to make it portrait and I mentioned how you can do it within Photoshop as well but I didn’t go into much detail even though that’s optional so I didn’t go into much detail about it. I also mentioned about where to put the video and where that option it but looking back it could be improved by me giving it better directions on how to get around the page and I should’ve mentioned that it can be a link to a website rather than a video and how you can put it in from the computer rather than just going into the information I knew at the time, going back I would’ve waited until I made the final poster and use the information I learned over time rather than going it so close to when we started the task. We also had to go into a lot of research as well and wrote than down as a evaluation alongside the pros and cons giving my opinion on where I believe AR is going in the future and how it can be used to help teach within the class room and also help people learn how to do other tasks like how to assemble IKEA. I mentioned how it can help gamers relate more to the game they are playing by putting the game into the real world. I also mentioned the problems about it and how they could be solved. Such as how it should be shown more within media. I asked people within a survey about layar and augmented reality and a large number of people don’t know what it is or don’t know much about it so it’s clear that the media needs to do more to show augmented reality and what it’s capable of. It can be really useful in all sorts of different media but if it’s not well advertised then the amount of companies willing to apply it to their business will only increase slowly. Comparing augmented reality to Google glasses. Both of these were both not available to members of the public. Even though it’s for two different reasons and the augmented reality is known that’s why the public aren’t using it so often and Google glasses were extremely expensive so no normal person can afford them. Even though these two are different in a number of different ways by looking at where Google glasses went wrong you can apply that information to augmented reality. And make it easier for the public to get a hold of it, either making it similar and easier to find or show them more in media so more people will be able to see it and are willing to apply it to their business. 

During the research I felt very confident. I did plenty of research going into details about how augmented reality works and all the different types of media and why it can be useful within them. Such as how augmented reality can be useful within gaming because it can bond the player with the game by putting it within their own home and can be also easy to learn new skills and give you the news and information easier than anything before. We were originally told than layar was optional and we can do research into other apps and software we could use instead and I did find some others such as an adobe one and another one with a month free trial. But after looking into the brief and talking with Julian we  found out that it wasn’t optional and that we had to use layar which meant I wasted time doing research which I didn’t end up needing to  have within my work, which made me feel a lot more pressured and concerned about the rest of my work I’ve done. But the time I spent doing that we all shared information what augmented reality and how it works, which meant that not all the time I had was wasted and it helped me to do more information within my research. The poster I was feeling very lost on what to do. I never had to make a poster before and I didn’t know where to start so I looked at other posters, even though the research I did wasn’t enough so I didn’t do much on poster design. I looked at posters by drugfreeworld but had no idea how to make that type of posters they had an image and text with one primary colours, with a swiped like design making them all blurred. They all had this deign with just different images, text and a different colour. My knowledge of Photoshop and how it works is something I need to improve on massively. So I looked at other posters and they all were cartoonish in design which made them look like they were aimed at a younger audience which isn’t the audience I was aiming at. I was aiming for older teens to young adults and cartoon graphics won’t appeal to that age group. So I designed my poster to have the image where the layar link will appear so it’s more nature, like the advert is coming from the poster its self. The layar logo is in the corner to show that it uses layar which is the main point of the poster. The poster has the drugfreeworld logo at the top with the ways to get help is at the bottom. The slogan is next to the information and I also have some statistics to make it look less empty and to give the viewer more information to the target audience and the why I’m aiming it to the target audience. So I felt very lost on what to do for the poster and did what made the most sense to me. I put myself in the situation where I did what I would like to see if I was the target audience. So I used the survey, people’s reactions and interview to get an understanding of how everyone has reacted to the poster and to get feedback so I know where I went wrong and what I can do to improve in the future. The text on the poster I was also having confusion with because Jess told me to use bolder text, while Julian gave me that text for my advert and I used it within the poster to show a connection between the two. During the reaction video they mentioned using a bolder text and in the survey the results every mixed so I’m still torn between a bolder text and the original but I could’ve made two poster and see which people prefer. Something else I thought went good on it was when I talked to a psychology student about how I could make this better by using colour psychology and how I make this appropriate to the target audience and I believe it went well, even though the slogan “keep the monster within” made it seem like I was telling people not to talk about their problems but apart from that I felt like it took the subject matter in a mature way.

During this project I did a number of things that I am proud of and something’s I could’ve done better and I regret not doing them. Some of the things I am proud of are doing the interview, reaction video and survey. The interview I did because of how the last one went, I was proud of it and I wanted to take what I did right before and improve everything I did wrong last time and make it better. Last time the footage was damaged and I wanted to make sure this time, it wouldn’t happen again. So I’m getting someone on the camera to look after it and if it loses focus mid way they can adjust it and I can cut that out so I can use the video this time. The reaction video I was also proud of and took the experience of doing it before to do it again and improve on anything I needed to. I thought what the point of doing a reaction and interview was but it gets both sides. It gets the opinion of myself and why I did what I did and how I could improve it but am able to mention anything I forget to mention during this while the reaction got other people’s opinions on it so they can tell me my mistakes so I can improve on it next time. The survey I was proud of because I went out of my way to use survey monkey before and I picked up how to do it really fast, some of the questions I could have phrased better but the results of the survey was extremely useful and gave me a number of useful topics to mention and peoples opinion on how to improve my work in the future. Even though I am proud of how everything ended up I still could’ve improved the survey by re-phrasing questions to make more sense and not to leave the reader confused. Since the my poster was on about drugs the people doing the survey wouldn’t need to go use the links provided so asking question on it is useless. To the question would you visit drugfreeworld.org, isn’t going get many people saying yes, not because I didn’t do a good job, because they might not need to. The question can still be answered with something such as “no because I don’t suffer from drug misuse”. I also should’ve done a lot more research into poster design which I will take note of and start to right a information down and topics I need to research beforehand so I can have a constant reminder for the future. I should’ve also done research into Photoshop and how I could’ve used different techniques and made the poster stand out more than what it is currently like. I was originally planning to make it like the other drugfreeworld.org posters but because of my lack of skill in Photoshop I wasn’t able to do what I wanted to do. So something I can do in the future is get better with Photoshop, either through photography or by watching tutorials online and online workshops to help because it’s a skill I will need in the future. So learning how to do effects and colouring, I will be able to make it look better and blend the image together more. People also mentioned a number of other improvements I could make in the survey. One I thought was interesting and is the only one I should talk about because the others weren’t strong enough points to make was where they said a different slogan because it makes it sound like I’m saying men should hide their feeling. Which looking back onto it the slogan, keep the monster within does make it sound like that, so researching slogans could’ve also improved the poster as well. Because the advert showed the monsters doing bad things while the image on the poster just shows him transforming because of drugs.

What I understand from all of the feedback, I have been given was I should’ve used a better image, a lot of people complained about the image, saying that the cigarette should’ve been light, there is no drugs in the image, meaning I didn’t make it clear enough in the picture. With a number of other people telling me to get a different image, with no other reasoning behind it. I could’ve prevented this by going to get someone from Photography to take the picture for me with me being the director of the situation so I could use their skills to improve my work.  People also mentioned about using different font. I used that font because it was the same on within my advert so it makes the connection between the two even stronger. But people said to have it bolder but I wanted it finer so it’s less like shouting and more like talking but I’ll be sure to get more people responses and get peoples opinion on it before finishing it and do research into other types of posters to see what are usually done and why they are. But during the reaction video I asked questions to the people who are reacting to get their opinion on some questions to see what they say while under pressure rather than having time to think of it, so they say the first thing on their mind without having to second guess. I understand that the research should’ve had more information written within it and that I should’ve put more than augmented reality within the research such as poster design and slogans. The poster had the augmented reality like it should have but the design of the poster could’ve been improved in a number of different ways. Such as different image showing more of the drugs and less of the monster and with a different slogan, one which gets my point across more and text to stand out a bit more to grab people’s attention.   

If the opportunity to do this again happens there are a number of different things, I can do to improve it next time. To use any new skills I gained from doing this and apply it to sooner within the project. Something I wanted to do at the beginning of the project was to get a digital media student to make the augmented reality or the image stand out more and if I were to do this project again, I could use other people from other courses to help, such as getting a photography student to take the image for the centre of the poster to make it look as good as possible, they could also have given advice on how posters should look like and how to make as best as I can make it. I could also use a digital media to add a digital image to the poster or they could help me do more with augmented reality as well. Making it stand out more than the others I would go more in depth with my research, not just writing about augmented reality and write about poster design and kept the research I did at the beginning of the project about other types of software and apps that could be used instead of layar. I believe that would have added more detail and depth to the research that I’m missing.  

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