Introduction

JoinIt is a new social network that gives you the opportunity to share content and put it anywhere you want it and see it in an augmented reality interface. Nowadays we are all the time connect it to a social network, that give us the opportunity to be in touch with anything or anyone we wanted to be. Using an AR environment would give us the opportunity to check out this content in real time and with information of where this content was created it.

To understand better lets describe what AR is. AR is the way to combine the real world with computer graphics that provides interaction with objects in real-time and tracks them. Provides recognition of images or objects and also give us real-time context or data. (Madden, 2011)

With JoinIt you can share photos, music, quotes, videos and little animations. JoinIt gives you the opportunity to create an avatar that would represent you in the virtual world and make contact with your avatars’ friends.

Establishing the Aims of Your Research

The first aim of my research is basically to know, if people could be used to an AR interface and if the content that JoinIt offers is attractive to the target audience that would be design it for.  Basically is to know if society knows what AR is and how do you used. Secondly, it is to know how attractive would be an AR social network. Finally, to know is the users feel comfortable with the interface and with the information flow.

Researching and Determining Your Sample Group

The users that I was looking for were the ones that were involved in the most trending social networks. Also I was looking for people who knew about AR so I can see how feasible is to create it in this format. Generally I was looking at any person who has access to a mobile phone and knows something about AR and that would be interest to share content in virtual reality.

Methodology

I used different ways to make the research. The first one was to make a survey in Survey Monkey. Then with the results that we had from the survey, I made a focus group with those who knew something about AR and also I included some of people who didn’t know about it. So I can see if would be easy to new users to get used to it. I made the research between Mexico and Australia so I could see if the project would be internationally competent depending in the internet access that the population had in this two countries.

Structuring and Designing the Questionnaire

These were the questions of the survey:

• ·       Do you know augmented reality?
• ·       How often you are in a social network?
• ·       What is the main reason why you share content in a social network?
• ·       What type of content do you share more?
• ·       What social networks do you use more?
• ·       Do you like to share music?

For the focus group I showed them the flowchart of the app and ask them their opinion about the interface, the interaction that they were having and if they feel comfortable with the idea of sharing content in this new way. Also I showed the logo and name of the app so they can give me their opinion about the look and feel of the brand. So I can see if the logo shows what the app offers.

Types of Question

      I used two types of questions

• ·       Multiple Choice
• ·       Open Questions/Opinion

Analyzing Your Results

The results show us that AR it’s a concept that it’s known by some part of the society, making viable to create an app with this format. When I made the focus group, I gave to the members who didn’t know about AR some apps that they can interact with them. It was really easy to them to interact with the virtual content. Their opinion about AR was that they reality like it and it was really funny to interact with content in a different way. This demonstrates that making a new app with AR would not be a problem to those how didn’t know how to use it because it would be easy to begin to interact with it.

As we can see in the result, it shows that people are really used to be in social networks, and the main reason is for fun and to be in contact with their friends and family. The usually share content for fun and also in the focus group they said that another reason was the curiosity. With these two factors show that JoinIt could be well accepted it for the audience. Also the results demonstrate that the users use different types of social networks and that they are used to change constantly in new ones that offers easy access to the information and easy to navigate on it, but also they want always be in contact with the same circle’s friends.

When I tested how would the app would works, the people who were in the focus group they said that was a really interesting way to show content and creating your own avatar gives innovation to the app. They quickly understood the concept and the main function of it.

Conclusion

In conclusion to the research, I can see that the costumers would adapt easily to this new social network. It is crucial to make the interface design easy and optimal usability so the users could easily understand it. The research shows that it is attractive to audience and what JoinIt offers would make the people to feel comfortable to share and search all the information that would be in the virtual space. Keeping it simple and following the standards that some AR apps have would make easier to user to understand it.

What would make JoinIt different is this opportunity to create your own character that would interact with the content that you and your friends share. Also that it is a new field were no many brands are used to develop. Making or brand more attractive to the audience.