SARAH EDMUNDS (she/her)
LIV OGIER (she/her)
LEAH SCHUTZ (she/her)

Design juniors / des 3525 design research studio 2

Grocery stores in the US can be very overwhelming for someone who is new to the country, and even for people that have lived here for a long time. By working with the IRC, we hope to create a better grocery shopping experience for refugees. Through augmented reality and video experiences, we would like to help refugees learn how to shop in US stores, but specifically stores in Salt Lake City. We’ve created QR codes for IRC clients to scan with their phones to show them iconography for store signs, what food symbols to know, the layout of the store, how to interact with the deli counter, and how to use the assisted check-out lanes. By using 3D modeled AR and video AR, clients will be able to understand how to complete a task without having to speak fluent English.
For the augmented reality, we started off by figuring out what experiences we needed to capture. We first decided to show the action of placing produce into the bags that many grocery stores provide, so that clients know what's available to them. We also decided to show different food symbols that are commonly found on packaged foods so that clients know what to look for when in those aisles. We started by 3D modeling these graphics in Rhino, then we transferred them into Adobe Aero. Aero lets you scale your graphics and create a link for your AR to be accessed. We then generated QR codes for these links. Clients will be able to scan these QR codes (placed throughout the grocery store) with their phones and pull up the AR in the grocery store.
We also created video experiences of how to interact with different locations at the grocery store. We show how a client can interact with an employee at the deli counter and how they can purchase meats, cheeses, and breads. We also show how to use assisted check out lanes and pay for their items. These videos are linked to QR codes that clients can scan in the store.
Our hope was to create a more seamless grocery store experience for new IRC clients through AR and video experiences.