The city of David

VR Experience

D-Day is a VR Experience App that was created for “the City of David” which is a Museum in Jerusalem. The interactive app features a story which is Sci fi in nature but is connected to the ancient Jewish ruins of the museum. I created everything a-z. Characters / UI / UX / branding / Print signs.

Role

UI design
UX research
Asset Design
Character Design

Client

Juno Group
The City of David

Time

5 weeks

Final Design

Problems

How to showcase the Ancient ruins in a way that won’t clash with the Sci fi modern sleek look and push the story of the VR experience. Gameplay for all ages. Have enough space on screen to see the museum. English And Hebrew.

Goal

We wanted a slick but Family friendly, minimal design. The main reason is that the location is seen through the phone app as you play on site. It should be stylish and not childish.

Solutions

01.

Simplify the elements.

02.

All Actions are repetitive, a limited color scheme.

03.

Vector art to accompany the story.

01. Simpliying

The VR experience is divided to 3 games that have 2 screens each and a photo mode. When playing you walk in the museum and collect Items and use them. They are also spread out inside the UI.

By finding a way to simplify the UX to a minimum I was able to design a “Frame” for each separate gameplay.

The frame changes but it keeps with the same thematic concept, hence not confusing the user.

Families that are not necessarily digitally oriented will use this app! so it must be clear and simple.

02. Actions and colors

Limited colors. I picked the color Cyan which relates to Sci-fi and it’s a calm color.

Transparent black for all UX backs, everything else black and white.

The game is long! so actions were discussed fully with the clients and we minimized them into specifics which for each I have created an action for.

From beginning to the end, you will get an immersive experience but not something that will override the visual of the Museum.

*Showcasing a Part of them how it will look on site.

03. Art and Character Design

D (for David) is a flying robot that comes and goes on the screen. I have designed this character for the clients. The spaceship was given to me with changes I requested.

I recommended for the art of the application to use a vector art piece and not a real location of the museum. One of the reasonings is that, it will give the story more volume and it’s an art piece that is less limiting for the clients to use for branding.

D was given expressions, particle affect and a defined spreadsheet for his creation.

Concept Sketches

Most of my work is through talking and sketching on the spot. I usually sketch framework on paper but I rarely save it, so I’m sorry this is not shown. But the UX work does happen! This is a snippet I digitized.

Visual Research

Branding

After the VR experience the family takes a photo and can share it to social media.
It goes into a virtual “Wall”, inside the museum, where all the families are shown.

On the bottom you can see the branding for the Apple store.

Final Design

Let's make
something fun together!