Project Goals

Building on the brief, our goal was to transform the history of Chinatown into a modern, interactive experience that could educate while entertaining. The app was envisioned as a dual-layered design: a digital tour guide for adults that provided cultural and historical context, and an adventure-style scavenger hunt for children that turned learning into play. By blending AR scanning with storytelling, puzzles, and cultural symbols, the project sought to make Chinatown feel alive as both a heritage site and a playful environment. This balance between education and fun became the foundation for all of our design and technical decisions.

App Content Design

The app was designed to offer layered content that could adapt to different audiences while keeping a consistent cultural focus. For adults, it functioned as a digital tour guide, where scanning landmarks such as the Chinese Museum, lion statues, or traditional arches would trigger stories, historical facts, and visual overlays. For children, the app provided a scavenger-hunt game: scanning the right objects unlocked riddles and rewarded them with puzzle pieces that gradually formed a keepsake image. To ensure accessibility, the app included multi-language support and weekly updates about Chinatown’s festivals, dining, and shopping events. All of these elements worked together to create an experience that was not only informative but also dynamic, turning Chinatown into a living cultural environment.

User journey map:

AR Functionality

To bring the digital experience into the real world, the project relied heavily on AR technology. Using Meta Spark Studio, we developed interactive scanning functions that allowed users to point their device at landmarks such as the lion statues or the Target Centre and unlock digital layers of information. In the children’s scavenger-hunt mode, AR recognition determined whether the scanned object was correct: a tick moved the game forward with a puzzle reward, while a cross prompted the player to try again. This cycle of scanning, feedback, and reward ensured that users of all ages stayed engaged, transforming Chinatown into an immersive and educational playground.

Sound Design

Sound was a central element in shaping the atmosphere of the app. I created a library of sound assets, including button sounds, welcome sounds, interaction effects, and background music. To achieve cultural authenticity, I recorded real-life sounds with a Zoom H4n recorder—for example, using the sound of opening a wooden door as the app’s welcome effect to match the Chinese-style landing page. For the background music, I drew inspiration from traditional Chinese instruments, particularly the Guzheng. I blended digital zither recordings in GarageBand with sound resources from its library, editing and mixing them in Reaper to achieve a balance between clarity and ambience. These audio layers gave the app both functional usability and cultural depth, ensuring users felt immersed in a Chinatown environment.

Timeline & Budget

I created a timeline to visually organize each team member’s tasks and track our progress. By confirming the start and expected end times of individual contributions, I was able to map out a schedule that kept the group coordinated and ensured steady progress toward deadlines. This timeline served not only as a planning tool but also as a reference during meetings, allowing us to adjust when challenges arose.

I was also responsible for the budget planning. Using Numbers, I developed a clear budget table that allocated the client’s $10,000 across key areas. This helped the team stay within scope and gave us confidence that resources were being used effectively.

Budget: