Tonborigraphy

About

The Tonborigraphy digital information panel was created in 2019 for Tonbori Base Cafe & Info. Our team created this program to give tourists an opportunity to virtually explore and interact with Japan’s treasured city of Osaka. Upon visiting the cafe, travelers can receive tourist information, use the Tonborigraphy panel, buy tickets for local events, eat and drink, and relax. Tonborigraphy features the local shops and restaurants of the Dotonbori area, including pictures, menu items, and seasonal events.

Challenges

For this project, our game development team had to find a way to display all of the selected attractions in an interactive way for the client. Furthermore, our design would need to include historical information and reflect Osaka’s culture through the aesthetics of different animated buildings, characters, audio clips, and colors.

Using Unity 3D and Steam, we had to create a large panel that could process the user’s fingertips as they tap and swipe to interact, as well as process multiple media types throughout the interaction. Additionally, we wanted to ensure that the system is accessible for periodic updates and new data. This way, new restaurants and seasonal themes can be added in real-time as attractions change throughout the years.

Approach

More than anything, our approach prioritized the user experience while interacting with the Tonborigraphy panel. With a user-friendly design in mind, we decided to include visual representations of the food featured at each restaurant since seeing an image of the food is helpful for first-time eaters of Japanese cuisine. We created eye-catching icons of the meals and categorized the restaurants by food type. Furthermore, we included the restaurant’s contact information and any available coupons while localizing this information to different languages.

We used Unity 3D to design the front end with a dedicated content management system, which the client has full access to. Our game development team included this aspect in the design so the client can easily update fluctuating information such as menu items and contact information. The client can also add and remove restaurants on their own accord, ensuring that tourists won’t be given false information.

Our content management system also provides a user-friendly experience. We wanted to make sure that the client would feel comfortable managing Tonborigraphy, whether or not they’re good with handling technology. The system is also designed to run on Steam for extended hours without interruptions. This meant that we had to pay extra attention to memory optimization and the performance of the application throughout our design process.