Young Designers 2011

		Young Designers 2011
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Neeta Khanuja | neetakhanuja@gmail.com

Window to Walled city, Ahmedabad

New Media Design | PGDPD
Guide: Vineet Diwadkar
Sponsor: Self Sponsered

Keywords
Ahmedabad
Tourists
Experience design
Augmented reality

A public space is defined as a social space that is open and accessible to all, regardless of their genders, races, ethnicities, ages and socio-economic backgrounds. It comprises architectural attributes, the structure and physical form of elements in a space, the emotions it triggers, perception and function. I wanted to explore the medium of storytelling and come up with possibilities in experience design using a multimodal approach. Thus, I could create a system that would build an emotional connection between the viewers and the place.

First, I had to understand the dynamics of the walled city, Ahmedabad. I investigated the challenges when it comes to designing for spaces and acquired knowledge of the available technologies. I imbibed Augmented Reality, which superimposes graphics, audio and other sense enhancements from computer screens onto real-time environments.

Window to Old City or Khirkee will have a set of stand-alone installations placed at various spots in the old city area of Ahmedabad. These installations will be connected with each other via a thread of stories and form a route similar to a heritage walk. A sutradhar (Mascot) will be the link between the performance and the audience. The output of this project was a prototype of the designed system in a defined scope and validation in terms of user testing. The system points out to the user’s location and tracks the user’s eye and head movements.

The project gave me an opportunity to design experiences and work in the domain of public spaces. As a designer I believe that love and attachment towards our work makes us explore many unknown opportunities. Synthesis is the heart of design and hence as designers, a respect for scientific thinking can help us synthesize to make the world better.