Holograms in the palm of your hand
I did a survey of existing similar mobile apps like Snapchat and Facebook that used augmented reality. With those existing applications in mind, I designed an experience that would feel comfortable and familiar to folk, while also working to put holograms front and center with a minimal, intuitive interface. In addition to placing holographic video into your space, the app created a path to taking pictures and videos of the result, a short step away from being able to share with friends and family.
In 2018, our engineering team unlocked the ability to play our proprietary holographic MP4 format on mobile Android and iOS devices. The phone was an unmatched opportunity to share the quality of our holograms with clients and partners in a fashion both immediate and personal. We were also producing souvenir captures of people who visited our stages, with a clunky and hard to share mechanism (a custom-built touch screen app). We needed to build an experience around that capability to help demonstrate the potential for others to build their own experiences around our technology.
Design for our first version of a mobile AR hologram experience.
Although both volumetric content and mobile AR (especially where the camera looks out rather than in) was still new to many, the core UX was simple enough that we dispensed with putting multiple frontloaded assistance screens in front of users, with the belief that once a user figured out what to do, it was better to declutter than to over help.
In addition to using the app to share content, we also offered the complete project (code and UX) as a white label application clients and partners could use and adapt for their own needs.
This project is rare in that there’s a solid record of what is predominantly my individual output. As with all things, this was a team effort, with feedback from our entire team, but the first pass wireframes you see above are very close to the app as the team developed it.
The app was successful enough in its first incarnation that other than code updates and minor bug fixes, we effectively left it as is. I did have a pathway to additional features (things like sharing your hologram with others, and an extension of lighting, shadows, and even AR filters for the holograms themselves.
