strisceapois

yourBiennale is a PDA application developed during my Interaction Design Lab 1 at IUAV in a team project with Alessandra Florian e Valentina Cuccato. yourBiennale involves the user in a virtual land in which everybody has a own island.
The island is just a metaphorical way to give to the user a private space in which is allowed to share multimedia stuff with other online users and where they can keep in contact or organize meeting with other people according to their common interests.
yourBiennale is a playful experience but primarily it is an useful instrument to explore the Art Biennale from people involved in Biennale too. A kind of unofficial “fuori Biennale” sites in a virtual mobile environment.

DEFINING THE PROJECT

Brief

SMART BIENNALE
Design and prototype an interactive information system for visitors to Venice’s most internationally important event: the Art Biennale. The system must be accessed by mobile phone.

Function

The Biennale is always a big appointment with art. And what it is art if it not a way to share feelings and to experience differently every day life? That’s why yourBiennale project is focusing on users and their point of view within the event. Is the user only a spectator or something more? Is there a possibility for them to live the Biennale in a more social way? To experience the Biennale in a more Venetian mood? Is the possibility to enjoy the space and feeling the community that is growing all around? The community could be more interesting it it has an identity and it is not only a mass of visitors!

SYSTEM DESIGN

Interaction

Through simple passages the user will be able to make an own virtual island:
1 Login to the application: choose a nickname, one focus area between painting, sculpture, video and installation then create your island
2 Explore the sea landscape and its inhabitants, move your island where you like more
3 Get information from the Services Island: search other users, change your buddy icon, localize your position in the map
3 Interact with islanders: send message
4 Interact with islanders: give an invitation
5 Arrange your house stuff: video, photo and text inside a bubble gallery (link).

Interface elements

The interface is using typical icons from Venice: for example when one users would like to send a message to another one on the screen appeare a mail-boat that starts from your island directly to the receiver. Or when I decide to join with someone else appeare a bridge that links my own island with the other one. We also use the Venetian “briccola” to make boundary among the different art area within the landscape. Each island has an own house and somehow this last began like a private gallery (especially for who is an artist).

Prototype

We made a working prototype (in Processing) of the system able to be shown on a computer screen.

Download

Next