Unseen Media

Unseen Media was an initiative to integrate augmented reality into tabletop mystery games. Players received a ship-to-home box of physical clues to investigate the death of "Charlotte Depsi," combined with web-based AR tools and an agent profile system for tracking progress through the narrative.

The concept originated as an escape room AR idea in mid-2017. After conducting 100+ customer interviews, we pivoted to a mail-to-home format to overcome the location and time constraints of physical venues and reach a broader market.

The project was selected for NYU's Fall 2017 Prototyping Fund, NYC Media Lab's inaugural XR Startup Bootcamp, the XR Beta Residency Program at RLab (Brooklyn Navy Yard), and Augmented Reality Expo 2019 in Santa Clara.

I served as product designer and researcher, where I conducted customer interviews, lead competitive analysis, designed AR interfaces, and iterated on the physical and digital product based on playtesting feedback.

We conducted 100+ interviews with potential customers to understand what they wanted from a mystery game experience. Our original escape room concept showed strong interest but limited scalability - testing quickly revealed that at-home mystery games had far better market reach.

Interview notes were synthesized to identify the core values driving purchase decisions.

Our early prototypes were designed to observe how users navigate semi-linear storylines through puzzles, and how they engage with AR elements embedded in a physical game.

I played through Hunt A Killer, The Mysterious Package Company, and Breakout Games to understand established conventions and identify gaps in the market.

AR was a emerging medium that many players encountered it for the first time through this product. Designing for it meant building intuitive interfaces and also actively educating users about AR within the experience itself.

Our design principles were: keep interactions simple, offer liberal on-screen text instructions whenever in doubt, and remind players that spatial movement — not just pinching to zoom — is possible in AR.

Based on customer discovery insights, we built a story-driven prototype around a real event: the Dyatlov Pass Incident, in which nine hikers mysteriously died in the Russian wilderness in 1959.

An extensive mind map was built to link puzzle interactions to story beats, and early game piece prototypes were developed and tested.

We ran unmoderated gameplay sessions at RLab events with a diverse mix of participants: AR/VR enthusiasts, students, casual gamers, and entrepreneurs.

Extensive playtesting surfaced three clear areas requiring redesign before we could move to the next prototype.

Designing AR wireframes presented unique challenges wherein traditional static wireframing couldn't capture spatial interaction and motion. This required heavier visual communication and close collaboration with developers.

A key principle was to draw from real-world names and metaphors (hacking tools, scanning devices) to ease users into unfamiliar AR interactions before introducing more abstract ones.

We moved to a higher-fidelity boxed prototype, commissioned a professional writer for a more compelling mystery narrative, and partnered with 8th Wall to deliver web-based AR on any device which eliminated the Unity compatibility issues entirely.

This version added multiple web puzzles, an Instagram profile for fictional character Angelica Greenstone, and the DSF Agency Agent Portal for tracking case progress.

Through RLab connections we participated in multiple NYC AR/VR community events, running observed playtesting sessions at Halloween Play 2019 and other demos. A key lesson was that we needed to separate excitement about the technology from genuine product evaluation.

Our preferred method became unmoderated, closely observed sessions followed by in-depth interviews.

The final Charlotte Depsi mystery box shipped to players' homes, enabling small groups to work through physical clues, web puzzles, and AR experiences to solve the case.

91% of players completed the experience start to finish — a strong signal that the integration of physical and digital elements created genuine engagement.