Tuesday 22 May 2012

onvert Competition Entry #3



Probably the last entry into the onvert competition - with the closing date just over a week away - takes advantage of two features:
  1. AR can highlight and modify elements of the real-world.
  2. Reading the QR code with any app other than the onvert viewer still directs you to the right page.
The idea is fairly simple.  A company sends out flyers to promote its new product.  If you scan the QR code then you're taken to a site where you can buy it.  However, if you scan it with the onvert viewer, then it also reveals a discount code that you can use on the site.

Of course the code wouldn't stay secret for long, and it would probably be on those discount code sites a couple of minutes after the flyers went out; but that's not really the point.  The aim is just to build some engagement with the brand.

The view for non-onverts:



The view in onvert viewer:



You can cheat and view it all in a browser here: http://onvert.com/9z9qr7s804/


Lessons learnt:
  • The original onvert covered most of the text with a black square to hide it.  This looked a mess when viewed through the camera because of differences of shade.  Blending an augment with real-world background is near-impossible due to real-world lighting variations.
  • I'd urge onvert to relax their policy on logo colouring.  The wording is already quite casual (http://onvert.com/legal/trademarks/), but with most companies enforcement is fairly strict.  I could have gone with the allowed monochrome option and chosen my own accent colour in this case; and that might be the option that a lot of designers go with.  If you're promoting a graphic to be added to other people's designs, then enforcing a colour scheme poses challenges.  They might allow people to set their own colour for the "on" instead - the shape of the onvert is quite recognisible on its own.