In a world filled with distractions, it's crucial to focus on meaningful living and while everyone shares the inevitability of death, how we spend our time varies. With this goal of promoting conscientious living, this project commenced, eventually leading to the creation of Bloom, an interactive artificial flower garden in cemeteries. Bloom is an augmented reality (AR) experience integrated into cemeteries which allow deceased individuals to immortalise their legacies through innovation. Each flower, linked to a deceased individual's legacy, can be scanned with an AR phone app, offering an exploratory experience without disrupting a cemetery's atmosphere. This system aims to preserve legacies for future generations, adapting to technological advancements.
This team project was done as a part of the course DECO3800 at the University of Queensland, however, sparked a genuine interest in myself and my team. As a result we have decided to continue with the project (outside of university work) and are looking to potentially pitch it to investors.
Through analysis of academic research, it was revealed that the concept of 'death as a motivator' has indeed been studied previously under the name, Terror Management Theory (TMT). More importantly, it revealed the potential for a positive outcome, which inspired the project's pivot from motivation to conscientious living.
Semi-structured interviewing methods revealed insights which further progressed the project's direction. Initial interviews were conducted with the aim of gaining insights into the general trends, patterns and relationships between different demographics and death awareness. This showed that as people get older, the more they think about death but even more so than death, legacy. This finding was later verified by a second phase of interviews focused on professionals in the relevant field (i.e. nurses who encounter the elderly often, and funeral directors).
Probes revealed insights more related to a solution i.e. the form and location. These results clearly indicated to the location being that of a cemetery, however emphasised the need for a seamless and harmonious integration (with a cemetery).
All these insights from the previous weeks of data collection led to the following design criteria for a potential solution:
The team generated and evaluated different concepts, from holograms to digital legacy libraries, eventually leading to the final solution called "Bloom" — an augmented reality-based interactive flower garden for cemeteries.
Initial wireframes were developed to outline the user interface and interaction flow for Bloom. These sketches focused on key features, experimenting with different task flows and visual styles, whilst ensuring the design is intuitive and aligns with the project’s aesthetic and functional goals.
A high-fidelity prototype was created in Figma to visually represent and simulate Bloom's final design. This interactive prototype allows users to navigate the app’s core functionalities, providing a tangible experience of the augmented reality interactions and legacy exploration features envisioned for the Bloom concept.
Note: This portfolio page provides a very concise summary of the project. If you would like to learn more, feel free to get in touch.