TART is an application that allows riders to paste digital stickers onto train-cars. Train cars would have a digital wrap, that connects to an app. Riders can decorate the train with local artist stickers, popular stickers, or AI made stickers. App allows you to create, color, and place stickers on the digital wrap. Your stickers disappear if you delete them or leave the station.

Using flexible LED technology, select T cars around Boston will be wrapped with a thin LED screen to display the artwork created by TART users. These train cars are called TART ‘canvases’.

In developing TART, I conducted a review of existing applications in the market, with a particular focus on Apple's Measurement app and Hoverlay. I analyzed their functionalities, user interfaces, and the technologies they employ to provide accurate and user-friendly measurement and augmented reality experiences. This involved dissecting their use of ARKit and other underlying technologies, understanding their approach to user interaction, and evaluating the precision and ease of use of their measurement tools.

I used the assistance of a friend to bring to life the complex scenario that TART creates. This scenario was developed to explore the broad spectrum of interactive experiences that TART offers, ensuring assessment of its user interface and overall user experience.

Conducting user testing for this concept presented its challenges. Given the project’s scale, I aimed to recreate the experience of waiting for the T within a classroom setting. I projected an image of a train featuring a design prompt and stickers on its side. Next, I allowed users to choose their stickers and position them on the train. To simulate the sticker application, I employed Photoshop to promptly place the selected sticker onto the virtual train.

After completing user testing, I found that people preferred to pick stickers from a predefined set rather than using the text-to-image feature to create their own. The main reasons for this were that users weren’t sure what to type for the text-to-image prompt, and they liked the consistent look of the predetermined stickers, which was different from the style changes that came with text-to-image.