Hippo
Imagining what reminders could look like for the next wave of XR and AR glasses
TIMELINE
April - Oct 2025
ROLE
Product Designer
TEAM
Kaitlin Chow (Designer)
SKILLS
Interaction Design
Prototyping
Developing
CONTEXT
Back to the Future
With the emergence of Meta Ray-Bans and access to the Apple Vision Pro, my partner Kaitlin and I wanted to capture what life could look like in a not-so-distant future
People can't remember things
IDEA
As google calendar warriors and an almost unhealthy reliance on reminders, we decided to explore the future of XR glasses through a simple everyday problem: people can't remember things
People are afraid of robots taking over the world
An interesting challenge we tried to tackle was people's fear of a future where AR would bombard them with panels and AI voice assistants
This led us to think about other considerations and create some guiding principles
LOW LEVEL OF DISRUPTION
Enough disruption to effectively remind, but not taking away from tasks
UNIUQE AR AND XR ADVANTAGE
Taking advantage of the spatial and accessibility XR and AR glasses provide
SMART AI SYSTEMS
How does AI smart technology merge with this XR and AR glasses system
CONNECTIVE SYSTEM
Connecting memory with community and this system with other devices
NORTH STAR
How can we make it easy to stay on track with AR reminders for the next wave of XR and AR glasses?
SOLUTION
Hippo
Levels of Complexity
We wanted to strip the base UI down, but give users the ability to open a higher level of complexity
On-The-Go Adding
Taking advantage of the accessibility of an AR or XR glasses system as well as advanced AI, we leaned into the convenience of adding reminders
Spatial Body Following
Combining user choice and the spatial advantage of AR and XR glasses, we allowed for putting reminders into space and toggling them to follow you
Object Anchoring
Leaning into interaction with space and others, we created a way to object anchor reminders for others
Smart Notification
Imagining how a smart AI system fits into this future we envision, we considered how context-based reminders could work
Device Connectivity
Most likely AR and XR glasses won't be used in isolation, so we considered what it could look like to integrate a mobile device into the system
PROCESS
Everyone has to start somewhere
Starting from the very beginning, we imagined a purely spatial-based reminder system
Demo developed for the Apple Vision pro through SwiftUI! (Vibecoding through Cursor)
PIVOT
We quickly realized that a purely spatial-based reminder system wasn't making it easy for users, but forced them to use one type of reminder
The level of disruption windows in space had was also much higher than what we were aiming for
INSIGHT
We wanted to use a surface that has an extremely low level of disruption, flexible to all types of reminders, and is the most intuitive
HAND, I CHOOSE YOU!
After ideating on different surface types and comparing them against our 3 insight criteria, we found the hand to be the most all encompassing.
But, we didn't shelf all of these ideas and incorporated some of these surfaces within the hand-central system
Refining the Hand
Now that we had narrowed down to a hand system, we explored different ways to mold our system around the hand
Iterations in hand-flipping (developed) and other hand gestures (After Effects)
DECISIONS, DECISIONS
We landed at our final hand interaction system after fully exploring many options and following the below principles
ONE HAND INTERACTIONS
Limiting interactions with the system to one hand for max accessibility and ease-of-use
SIMPLIFYING GESTURES
Limiting gestures and not layering different gestures you have to memorize on top of each other
Design Decisions
We made many many iterations, but these are a few of our key decisions
List of all reminders (developed) to mobile offboarding (After effects)
INTERNET OF THINGS
We took advantage of the interconnectivity of devices in the future while also harnessing the unique spatial advantage an AR and XR glasses system ahs
CONNECTIVE SYSTEM
Connecting memory with community and this system with other devices
UNIUQE AR AND XR ADVANTAGE
Taking advantage of the spatial and accessibility XR and AR glasses provide
Detailed long add system (developed) to purely voice-based quick add (After Effects)
TIME IS MONEY
Leaning completely into the hands-free AR and XR experience, we wanted to create a seamless on-the-go experience with AI
SMART AI SYSTEMS
How does AI smart technology merge with this XR and AR glasses system
UNIUQE AR AND XR ADVANTAGE
Taking advantage of the spatial and accessibility XR and AR glasses provide
Detailed person and location adding to relying on AI system with manual option (After Effects)
EASY PERSON AND LOCATION ADDING
The location and person adding system become complicated and layered, so we decided to opt to a simpler base interaction and give users the option to change manually
SMART AI SYSTEMS
How does AI smart technology merge with this XR and AR glasses system
CONNECTIVE SYSTEM
Connecting memory with community and this system with other devices
Detailed UI with icons and colors (developed) to stripped down, translucent UI (After Effects)
SIMPLIFYING
Further along the process, we went back to the visual design and considered how we could make the UI blend with the background more and only highlight the most important information
LOW LEVEL OF DISRUPTION
Enough disruption to effectively remind, but not taking away from tasks
UNIUQE AR AND XR ADVANTAGE
Taking advantage of the spatial and accessibility XR and AR glasses provide
CONTINUED…
There's much more behind the scenes! Would love to discuss more in a coffee chat or interview :)
HOORAY!
What Did I Learn?
FEEDBACK IS KEY!
Communicating each iteration to people we respected and getting feedback was a huge help in our process and staying on track
ITERATIONS, ITERATIONS
We wouldn't have been able to land at the solution we have now if we didn't push ourself to keep iterating and exploring
What's Next?
DEVELOPING MVP
Like we were able to develop out 2 MVPs on the Apple Vision Pro early on in the process, we'd love to develop for later iterations
USER TESTING
Early on, we dreamed of using our MVPs to test with real people to see hoe intuitive our system really was, which we'd love to do now
Thanks For Reading!!
Check out some other stellar work
Let’s create things that are out of this world!