Duality

Client: StoryBox, Shanghai Theatre Academy, Shanghai International Arts Festival | Time Frame: 1 1/2 Months | Tools: Unity3D, Adobe Illustrator | Platforms: IOS, Android

Role:

In September 2016, I was contracted by local production company StoryBox, as a UI/UX Designer to work on an Immersive Theatre Project called Duality for the Shanghai International Arts Festival. Through the use of a custom app built in unity, we transform the audience members’ smartphones into the phone of the show's protagonist. In my role I focused on:

• Asset Creation and Implementation: Created an accurate replica of the IOS front end and implemented it inside the unity game engine.

• User Flow: Designed the user flow for the four critical users of the app, actors, audience members, guides and production staff.

• Branding: Assisted in the branding design for the show, by pitching ideas and working with the Chinese side of the production to theme the app appropriately.

To make the show more immersive, my main focus was to help recreate the look of IOS in accurate detail, making the app feel like it was a real phone to the audience members. All the assets used in the show were recreated by me in illustrator and then implemented in unity using the built-in UI system.

About the Show:

Duality was a collaboration between STA (Shanghai Theatre Academy), Storybox and Shanghai International Arts Festival. As an adaption of the format used in StoryBox's previous Immersive theatre project The Woman Who Forgot. 

Audience members become the main character and are fed information about the story and the world they inhabit via a custom mobile app. They receive text and voice messages, recorded video conversations each one replicating real-life digital services, which are all controlled by the story app. This is enhanced through live actors that audience members encounter at each location of the story, Building on information delivered via the phone app, creating a surreal experience for audience members.