DoteNote
Overview
DoteNote is an AR mobile application where two intimate partners can leave a 3D message at a specific location for the other to find. The project won 3rd place at a 24-hour hackathon HackCMU that was held at Carnegie Mellon University.
Ideation
HackCMU was an open-ended hackathon where the participating teams can come up with any ideas as a project. As a team, we wanted to use an emerging technology and we decided on augmented reality. Unlike other computer science students participating in the hackathon, we wanted to approach technology not from the technical side but the human side. As students studying human-computer interaction, we decided on building a messaging application between two intimate partners.
Prototyping
With the ideation complete, we began to prototyping screens that will be on our messaging application. User flow was extremely important and deciding on what should be the first screen the user sees was thought thoroughly. We tried having a map showing the current location pop up first but decided that displaying the camera for the user to immediately leave a message was more important. Once the first screen was decided, the remaining screens followed along smoothly. We created mockups using Adobe XD and Adobe Illustrator.
Development
Once the prototyping was done, we began to develop the core features of our messaging application, writing a 3D message and leaving the message at a specific location. To implement this, we used Google ARCore to bring 3D objects into life.
Presentation
For our final presentation, we implemented the additional features using Origami and Adobe After Effects. We drew our storyboard for the video presentation and filmed each scene using the actual messaging app with effects later added using editing tools. In the end, DoteNote won 3rd place at HackCMU.