Attending a tech conference in person is sometimes problematic — potential attendees may live in different countries with travel restrictions, or there could be issues attending due to some medical emergency or disability.
Project Goal
We wanted to allow users to experience the full immersion of a conference using mixed reality: locating booths, pulling up information from a knowledge system such as Infopedia, even attending lectures, just as if they were there in person — even allowing them to ask questions via video calls, all tied into one cohesive mixed reality experience leveraging the power of HoloLens.
Process
I was tasked with this design project in 2017, when Skype was still the dominant way of making voice and video calls within Microsoft. I worked to develop a conceptual POC 2D flow of the UX, which allowed the user to pick a virtual conference booth using the HoloLens. From there the user could view a card in 3D space based off our work with Infopedia — the card shows the schedule for that booth, and allows users to attend events via Skype. From the 2D flows, I started mocking up the experience in 3D to being talks with the development team. These were then extended into the 3D space using Blender and Unity. I worked alongside the engineering team to develop, troubleshoot, and polish the 3D experience. We added sounds and music to complete the experience. A video below demos the actual user experience of interacting with the app staged up at the TCS office.
Results
The project won 1st place in an internal TCS Hackathon in 2017.
Chris Hughes — UX/UI Design, Motion Graphics Design
