Project description:

It’s the first AR-effect in instagram that tell story about gender inequality using data. It has userfriendly and minimal design that made it viral in CIS countries.

After pressing video recording in Instagram story the first sentence in the effect asks: “Wish me on March 8”. Next randomizer select one of the 9 answers and data-facts about gender inequality.

This project inspired activists and visual journalists to use immersive technologies in their stories.

Impact reached:

Blogers and activists shared the data-driven message about gender inequality across Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. It reached more than 450k views and 4800 shares. It’s impossible to reach theese numbers using Kyrgyz media sites.

This project inspired activists and visual journalists to use immersive technologies in their stories. I made a couple workshops for them about storytelling using AR.

Techniques/technologies used:

For this project I used Spark AR. It’s a tool from Facebook for developing AR effects using visual programming and JavaScript.

What was the hardest part of this project?

Learning how to use Spark AR and getting comfortable with visual programming. It was not userfriendly that time and there were little tutorials.

The hardest part was about publishing this effect to Instagram. Facebook have awfull rules: for example you cannot mention any sex related texts in your effects. They don’t approve mask and don’t tell what is actually wrong with it. It took about 10 days to check and publish my effect.

What can others learn from this project?

AR can be easy to develop, AR-effects in social media is a great tool for sharing ideas and telling stories.

Project links:

www.instagram.com/ar/174810097277579/