It is with great excitement that I get to introduce the official launch of Memory Lane. Consisting of two projects–an augmented reality (AR) experience and an educational website of Romeo, Michigan’s Main Street–Memory Lane looks to use different digital tools to help audiences immerse themselves in downtown Main Street heritage. This project started off as just an idea and a pile of wireframes, so to see it at its completion is very rewarding.
As mentioned, the project includes two parts: (1) an AR experience and (2) website. I wanted to incorporate both features so that community members and tourists alike could interact with Romeo’s history and heritage both while in the downtown area and if they were simply searching the web. In the fall of 2024, I began working with GitHub pages, Start Bootstrap, and Visual Studio Code (HTML, CSS, and Javascript code). This was the most challenging part of building the project for me. Not only for the different coding elements to consider, but also because I needed to think outside of the box in some ways to create what I was envisioning. For example, I wanted to have a gallery of all of the locations included in the AR experience listed on the website so that users could learn more about each location’s history and see more historical photographs. To do this, I actually used a coding template for an online shop and edited the code to fit the outline I wanted. I also got a lot of coding help from my CHI colleagues (thank you all!) and checked it through the use of AI, which can be a learning tool in this situation as well.
In January, I met with staff members in the Digital Scholarship Lab at MSU to discuss options for my AR experience. I had dabbled with platforms like Unity before, however, I was running into many challenges in the creating and testing phases, so I wanted to see what other options they had experience in using. They recommended ThingLink, which is a software that integrates images, video, audio, and 3D models into interactive technology. The university has a license for the software and agreed to host my experience for two years. After which, they would assist in helping myself or the community register for a license. Although the software is very easy to use to create an AR experience, there are some challenges that I have faced. For example, this AR technology is marker-based, which means users need to scan a QR code to start the experience. This is fine in most cases, however, users cannot just use their phone’s camera to launch the experience, they need to download ThingLink’s AR Viewer app to start. The app is free, however, and the one QR code applies for all locations in the experience, which helps eliminate frustration in scanning a different QR code at each location. Users simply need to keep the window open on their mobile device to access all Memory Lane locations. Signs will be posted along Romeo’s Main Street to explain this process (the village has agreed to help with funding and creating such signage). There are six locations featured in the experience (based on (1) which locations were considered cultural hot spots (socially, economically, etc.) and (2) which of those locations had more archival materials and historical documentation available). Those locations are: Main Street Looking North, The American Hotel, The Romeo Saving Bank, The Citizens National Bank, Gray’s Block, and Main Street Looking South. Each location has three interactive elements: one explaining the Memory Lane AR experience (star icon), another describing the location’s history (book icon), and finally, a carousel of historical photographs (camera icon). In this way, community members and tourists can begin the experience at any location. Each icon also links to the website for more information. I completed the AR experience at the end of February and invited those that participated in my interviews to beta test it at the beginning of March. The Village President was impressed with the final product and spoke of how to support me in finalizing the project and even growing it further next year because of their rebranding of “Return Back to Romeo.” I am excited to see how this part of the project develops.
The educational website consists of a lot of information for users to view while interacting with the AR experience or if they want to just learn more about Romeo’s history. Pages include: “Home,” “About the Project,” “About the Creator,” “What is Augmented Reality,” “Contact,” and “Acknowledgements.” The main section consists of pages associated with Romeo, Michigan in particular (as that was the case study location for this research project). Those pages include: “Downtown History,” “AR Experience,” “Map,” “Memory Lane Locations,” and “Share Your Memories.” The map was created through Leaflet and identifies all of the locations featured in the AR experience and includes pop-ups with general information, a photograph, and a link to its separate informational page. The locations page is a gallery outline of all the locations as well and leads to individual informational pages. In thinking about UX design, I wanted to include multiple ways for audiences to find and interact with such information, so I included different routes to these informational pages. The “Share Your Memories” page is for community members and tourists to share their own memories of downtown Romeo. These submissions could be included on the website as well, which allows for more exploration of history and heritage and helps preserve those memories. Submissions will be monitored by me and evaluations will happen before making these narratives public on the website. I think the most challenging aspect of creating this website from scratch is the coding, or knowing how to translate what I was envisioning into specific code. However, I think this was the most rewarding part of the process as well–reflecting on how I interacted with code back in September compared to how I use code now is night and day, and I consider that a great achievement. And so, word of advice–don’t ever give up!
Overall, this CHI project has taught me many things:
- To be patient with myself when learning something new
- Collaboration is key, both for the support and for learning
- My interests and goals can inspire others
- Hard work does pay off
I enjoyed moving through all of the emotions of this project–the accomplishments and the struggles–because these experiences have helped me learn and grow as a researcher, creator, and anthropologist. A sincere thank you to all of my CHI colleagues for your support throughout the entire process–I couldn’t have done it without you!
This CHI project will also be used as part of my dissertation project, “Taking A Walk Down Memory Lane: Exploring Immersive Digital Approaches in Local Communities.” In the end, I hope that this project will inspire other small towns to think about preserving their heritage in this way, and thus, I hope to build onto Memory Lane to include more interactive experiences down Main Street.
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