Najma Dawood

Case 04 · Immersive · Brand & Experience

2018

Dandelion AR

A wooden token, an island, a layered history

A gloved hand holding a small laser-cut wooden token etched with a dandelion — the physical trigger for the AR experience
Client
Havas Fellowship · Governors Island
Role
UX Lead · Project Manager
Year
2018
Discipline
Immersive, Brand & Experience

Overview

A public-facing AR experience triggered by a laser-cut wooden token. Dandelion is a tribute to the historic NYC transit system and a merger of the physical and the digital — an invitation to look at an old place with new eyes.

Context

Selected for a highly competitive fellowship to design, prototype, and deliver an immersive AR experience. The constraint was public-facing: any passerby on Governors Island could be a first-time AR user.

Approach

  1. 01

    Directed UX research, storyboarding, interaction design, and iterative prototyping across a cross-disciplinary team.

  2. 02

    Served as primary client liaison — timelines, stakeholder communication, cross-functional coordination.

  3. 03

    Prototyped the wooden token and its role in triggering the experience (physical / digital affordance).

  4. 04

    Tested on-site with visitors, iterating on legibility, dwell time, and onboarding.

Outcomes

  • — Working AR prototype demoed on Governors Island.
  • — Exhibited at Prototyping the Augmented Island (2018).

Gallery

An open white box filled with laser-cut wooden dandelion tokens, ready to hand out to visitors on Governors Island
A visitor holds up a phone to view the Dandelion AR layer on Governors Island

Recognition

  • — Havas Fellowship, 2018

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