10:10 AM - 10:35 AM
Within USA TODAY NETWORK's DNA is the desire to innovate how the organization tells stories. Since 2018 USA TODAY's Emerging Technologies team has developed over 40 highly engaging and interactive augmented reality (AR) experiences, exploring complex, historical, and trending news topics. Recognizing an opportunity to improve the core user experience within the app's framework, the team leveraged engagement analytics and external user testing to develop a robust and intuitive user onboarding sequence, resulting in a 3x increase in average time spent per user.
A few media-rich AR experiences that include the updated framework are “Seven Days of 1961: A Dangerous Ride on the Road to Freedom,” "Champions of Women's Suffrage,” "Accused: The Impending Execution of Elwood Jones,” “Attica: A Prison Uprising 50 Years Later,” and many others. The Emerging Technology team has also implemented accessible designs to meet their audience's growing expectations for new and inclusive forms of premium interactive experiences.
Will Austin, the Senior Designer of Emerging Technology, will explore the evolution of UI/UX to foster a deeper understanding of AR amongst casual consumers. He will also share insights and case studies on USA TODAY's onboarding challenges, new instructional design, and its vision for the future of premium interactive editorial experiences.
11:00 AM - 11:55 AM
Incorporation of 3D assets into the e-commerce customer experience has a significant positive impact. Customers are more likely to purchase products represented by 3D assets, and less likely to return them, because they have a much better idea of what to expect in real life.
Khronos Group's 3D Commerce Working Group was founded to remove barriers to deploying 3D in e-commerce at the industrial scale. By extending Khronos’s glTF standards asset format, creating 3D authoring guidelines and tools, and certifying 3D viewer, this group is working to enable the seamless design, manufacture, and presentation of 3D products.
In this session, experts from a variety of 3D asset providers share how they're working to create a single 3D object that offers value to stakeholders at every stage of product development. Learn how new hybrid working realities are driving the need for fully digital product development workflows. Discover current gaps in the pipeline as well as how to balance requirements for performance, portability, fidelity, and web accessibility. Find out how to incorporate shopping behaviors into the design process, so the same object interactivity features can benefit both product designers and consumers.
12:00 PM - 12:25 PM
As we begin to build out communities inside the Metaverse/virtual worlds, are there any key architectural tenants and principals we should consider first, that might be different from game design ecosystems? Traditional Experience Design from themed attractions have long been well equipped to answer these questions. Tune in to this fireside chat with Disney Imagineer and Experience Designer, Amy Jupiter, to help us better understand if building for the Metaverse holds the same requirements as building a new themed attraction.
12:30 PM - 12:55 PM
The world is awash with identity politics, and many communities and brands feel as if they are drowning in the chaos. But what if the key to 21st Century growth is in truly listening to these voices? Come learn how to grow in VR by empowering the unheard to lead.
02:25 PM - 02:50 PM
02:55 PM - 03:20 PM
AR already powers compelling ways for shoppers to visualize, try on, and experience products before buying them – helping to increase sales and reduce returns, benefitting both shoppers and businesses alike. In this workshop-style session, we’ll show you how you can create and publish AR Try-On Lenses, whether you’re a beginner, brand or business, or an experienced developer. From external body mesh to cloth simulation, you will see how the Snap AR platform is reimagining retail and fueling some of the most advanced, realistic experiences on mobile today.