Letgo XR
Project Overview
I participated in my second hackathon, Mixed Reality, hosted by MIT. It focused on augmented reality, virtual reality, blockchains, and Web3.0 technologies. My team and I were exploring ways to use mixed reality to promote self-reflection, & create social connections within the community.
Roles:
UX Designer
Team:
3 Developers
2 UX Designers
Timeline:
2.5 Days
Hackathon
Tools:
Hololens 2
Unity
Figma
Scope
Challenge
Imagine easily capturing any thought that comes to mind and placing it in your surroundings for others to view, interact with, and benefit from. This thought or memory sharing lets you spatially save important moments within your community and receive the same in return.
Over time, you'll navigate through a mixed reality (MR) space where a variety of thoughts, emotions, revelations, and queries coexist, creating an ongoing community presence without a fixed conclusion.
The Objective
LetgoXR, a mixed reality application built for Microsoft HoloLens 2 will allow users store to people’s memories based on location and allows users to create a memory they wish to let go of.
Hosted at MIT Media Lab.
Beginning brainstorming the night after forming the team!
Learning About Other’s Experiences
Short Surveys
Given the limited time during the hackathon, we designed concise surveys for fellow participants to gather insights into their experiences with mental health and social connections.
Drawing from the stories they shared, we aimed to visually showcase their significant moments on LetgoXR once we got to iteration and prototyping stages.
Here’s some of the responses we received:
Defining the Interactions
Sketching
I dedicated a significant amount of time to brainstorming the interactions and gestures that users would have at their disposal while using our app. After thorough consideration, we settled on a concept where users could engage with three distinct blue orbits per scenario, each representing different moments.
By interacting with these orbits, users could see and hear the significant moments of others. When they reached the final orb, they would have the opportunity to share their own moment.
2D Prototype Flow #1: Viewing a Memory
Users have the freedom to initiate memory posts at any time and from any location. This functionality could resemble a hand menu for convenient access. For the prototype, we've taken a simpler approach, beginning with the basic ability to record memories and then proceed to exploration.
2D Prototype Flow #2: Creating a Memory
Users have the flexibility to select various mediums for recording their memories, such as voice, images, text, music, and more. However, for the prototype, we focused solely on implementing voice recording.
Hand off to Hololens 2
Team Testing
As we concluded the process of defining our core features and interaction gestures, we thoroughly tested our prototypes within the Hololens 2 before the judging session.
Computer’s down, it’s Judging Time!
Judge Session
During the judging session, we had 13 rounds of the Hackathon judges testing our prototypes.
Future Roadmap & Learnings
VR Environment
Looking ahead, we envision LetgoXR evolving to include a feature where users can spatially record memories and personalize the 3D elements that hold these recordings for releasing. Additionally, we plan to integrate artificial intelligence and generative art capabilities to enhance visualization.
Handling Constraints
It was clear to us as a team during this hackathon that creating any project and executing it would be challenging. Although we didn't win any prizes, I'm thankful to have worked in an agile environment with short deadlines.
Inspiring People
The people I met at this hackathon were doing amazing things that I would never have imagined. I enjoyed meeting new talented people who share the same passion for using technology to drive change.
