Process & Approach
With a tight deadline, we had to move fast and efficiently. The whole team jumped into the project at full speed, aligning quickly and working in parallel to bring the concept to life.
I began by mapping out the entire user experience, ensuring the flow would feel intuitive, engaging, and meaningful. At the same time, I collaborated closely with our Art Director to define the visual style—something that would both complement the historical setting and feel exciting for modern visitors. Simultaneously, I worked with our Copywriter to establish the thematic tone and emotional atmosphere of the experience, anchoring the narrative in authentic regional history.
As the Copywriter delved into local legends and key historical events, I designed the full user journey in Figma, which served as both a blueprint for development and a collaborative tool for the team. This helped everyone stay aligned and allowed for quick iteration. The prototype was soon developed into a rough interactive presentation, which we shared with the client to validate the core idea, the proposed mood, and content direction.
Developing the base:
Once we received client approval, I transitioned into active development in Unity. Since I was the sole developer on this part of the project, I had the flexibility to structure my workflow in a way that best supported both speed and creativity.
For projects with tight development timelines, I follow a rapid prototyping approach. My goal is always to reach a fully functional, minimal version of the application as early as possible. This working prototype includes all the core interactions and structure, using placeholder content such as temporary images, text, and UI elements. Having this baseline in place allows me to iterate quickly and confidently—knowing I always have a stable version of the application to fall back on.
One of the features I prioritized early in development was localization. In Unity, I typically implement this using a structured .json file, which I build in parallel with the rest of the application. This method allows me to keep all translation keys logically named and neatly organized, making it easy to manage content in multiple languages. Given that this was a public-facing experience in a tourist destination, having reliable and flexible multilingual support was a must.
Feedback:
With the foundation set, I reached out to the team for feedback. We conducted a collaborative review of the barebones version, focusing on structure, usability, and alignment with the overall narrative. This step was crucial - not just for identifying potential improvements early, but also for ensuring that the team stays synchronized.
Once the internal team validated the core experience, we prepared a progress presentation for the client. Sharing these early-stage builds with the client helped maintain transparency, encouraged open dialogue, and allowed us to course-correct quickly if needed.
Creative development:
With the core application validated, I was finally able to shift into the more creative phase of development—the part I enjoy most: bringing the experience to life visually and interactively.
I began by replacing all placeholder visuals with custom illustrations provided by our illustrator. This instantly gave the app a distinctive and polished visual identity, transforming the prototype into something that felt cohesive and immersive.
Next, I started implementing “nice-to-have” features that would enhance user engagement and elevate the overall experience. One of these was the parallax effect. Since the application was designed for a large 64-inch touch display, we deliberately made the illustrated scene larger than the screen itself. This allowed users to drag across the scene, triggering subtle foreground and background movements that created a sense of depth and immersion. Inspired by this interaction, I decided to hide UI elements behind foreground objects, introducing a playful element of surprise and discoverability—rewarding curious users for exploring the scene.
To further root the experience in the real world, I added a compass element at the top of the screen. As users navigated the scene, the compass rotated to reflect their direction. This not only grounded the illustrated environment in real geographical orientation, but also helped users understand the spatial context of the view from the castle terrace.
For the animations, I used LeanTween, a Unity plugin that allowed me to programmatically animate both UI components and illustrated elements. This included everything from button transitions and pop-up windows to more atmospheric touches, like moving clouds drifting across the background.
Throughout this phase, I worked closely with our illustrator/animator, not only to validate the look and feel of the illustrated assets but also to build and refine the scene collaboratively. Her input was especially valuable when fine-tuning movement and transitions to match the style and tone we were aiming for.
I also coordinated with the Art Director to ensure that our visual direction remained consistent across all three applications. Maintaining a unified aesthetic was crucial, especially since these experiences were part of a larger, interconnected visitor journey.
One of the final touches I added was the talking crow character, a recurring figure across the digital experience and supporting materials. This character served as a narrative guide, helping users navigate the story. Including him in this application felt like a natural fit—it tied the experience into the broader ecosystem and gave users a familiar, welcoming presence throughout their visit.
Testing, Validation, and Deployment:
With the application complete, I handed it over for testing to ensure that no bugs or usability issues had slipped through. Thorough testing was essential, especially given the public-facing and interactive nature of the installation.
We also presented the final version to the client for approval. Aside from a few minor content updates—such as the integration of additional video elements—the application was approved without major changes.
This brought us to the on-site deployment phase, where we set up and tested the experience on the actual hardware at the castle. As the project reached its conclusion, we were proud to see the final experience revealed to the public—a moment that marked the culmination of months of intense collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving.
