Chiara Marradi - BSc Graduation Project

I graduated 'cum laude' (110/110) in September 2017 with a BSc in Graphic Design & Communication

at the New Academy of Fine Arts (NABA), Milan.

The graduation project has been developed over a period of 3 months.

Driven by strong social and moral justice and the curiosity toward the latest technological developments, I started this graduation project with a challenge and a research question in mind.

Thanks to the new technological developments nowadays we can easily do shopping with just one click comfortably sitting in the couch of our living room, or while moving toward another destination. Amazon strategically took up the opportunity to innovate in this changing environment and was able to respond to the new human needs and societal trends: a fast-pacing society, where time value more than money. In this way Amazon became a powerful monopoly, starting by monopolising the market of books. with the (sad) consequence that more and more people started preferring to buy books online than going to the 'old but beautiful and paper-smelly' libraries.

How can we bridge the diverging gap between online-offline shopping experience?

How can we design an enhancing and valuable experience able to bring back the people to the bookshops?

How can we add value to the physical experience of 'buying books' in the libraries by combining the best side of both worlds (digital and physical)?

Thanks to the Beacon technology is possible to put a smartphone in connection with a physical environment. By emitting bluetooth signals this device talk with the smartphone, through a mobile application properly coded. Those signals will activate multimedia contents on the smartphone. The contents change accordingly to the (indoor) location and proximity with the Beacon.

The logotype for the new experience store of Feltrinelli

A prototype of the app has been developed on InVision to test the idea.

The App works as a guide and personal “travel-diary” where people can collect and save books of their preference. Inspired by Tinder, we created a book matching app. Other than finding the book that fits people’s preferences, it is also possible to find the person that share your same interests of reading.

People can chat with Nelli, a chatbot which works as a travel-guide. Nelli learn people preferences and interests and help them to find their match!

The map is available also in a paper version inside the store and metaphorically represents a compass which in turn should lead people to discover the book that fits their own preferences. There are 4 maps of different colours which suggests the 4 different experiential path people can interact with during their journey: the horror, the adventure, the intellectual and the romantic.

Making and designing our prototypes of the guiding tools.

What is my destination? The dreaming world.

What is my favourite book? Feltrinelli knows that.

What did I discover today? That here stories can become true and turn into life experiences

The printed version of our thesis

Inside layout of the thesis

This video shows how does the App work. The App is like a compass that lead people towards the book of their dreams or a person with same interests. The Augmented Reality Map is interactive and connected with the Beacons around the store .