Miscellaneous UI/UX Projects @ UNC Blue Sky Innovations Lab

Leveraging emerging technologies to solve human-centered problems

The cover image of the case study: Miscellaneous UI/UX Projects @ UNC Blue Sky Innovations Lab

  • time :

    Jan. 2022 - Jan. 2024

  • type :

    Group Work

  • tools :

    Figma, Adobe CC, VS Code

  • functions :

    UI/UX Design, UI Development

Overview :
UNC Blue Sky Innovations lab specializes in using emerging technologies to solve human-centered problems. I was first involved as a part-time innovation fellow working on UI/UX design & development tasks, and later as a UX Developer working on a VR instructional design project until Jan. 2024.

CONTEXT

Applications of emerging technolgoies are beneficial in domains like business, education, healthcare and more

The application of emerging technolgoies like virtual reality ( VR ), augmented reality ( AR ), and artificial intelligence ( AI ) has great potential to solve problems in various domains and is going to be more ubiquitous in the near future.

*Below are the core emerging technolgoies the lab has applied to build solutions in the past and present:

Fig. 1: The emerging technologies the lab incorporated to build solutions
Fig. 1: The emerging technologies the lab incorporated to build solutions

MY ROLE

Solving human-centered problems in education and digital storytelling as a designer, developer, and UX strategist

I provided necessary supports in design, development, and general UX strategies for multiple projects at the lab that are centering around education and digital storytelling. See the projects I contributed to below:

Fig. 2: Photos of my work on the projects and tours at the lab
Fig. 2: Photos of my work on the projects and tours at the lab

PROJECT: CHATBOT LEARNING ASSISTANT DESIGN

How might we teach hotel staff human-centered design concepts and applications in an engaging way?

My role as a designer in this project participated in the ideation process, post-launched user testing and one storyline's graphic design. *Note that the lab at that time was before the rebranding, known as Reese Innovation Lab ( View our demo video below )

Demo video of our solution

Context & Ideation
The research insights and ideation process.
  • The research insights and ideation process.
  • The reasoning behind our design ideas and user flow mapping.
  • Iteration from AR to chatbot application.
  • Visualize the learning process through a sketched storyboard.
  • My contribution - graphic design for one storyline.
  • The proposed changes driven by the user testing.

* Click the thumbnails to further learn the project details

PROJECT: AR SCAVENGER HUNT

How might we leverage emerging technologies to create a memorable and luxurious guest experience for the hotel’s luxurious brand?

My role as a UX developer in this project participated in the ideation process, user testing and a facial recognition kiosk development. ( View our demo video below )

Demo video of our solution

Context & Ideation
The project context and background research.
  • The project context and background research.
  • The Ideation and the design objectives we sought to balance.
  • Final Iteration to build a luxurious experience.
  • The photo of our AR game's interactive flow.
  • We polished the game experience through professional media production and added the business value propositions.
  • My contribution and impact.

* Click the thumbnails to further learn the project details

PROJECT: WEB DESIGN

How might we help K-12 students at North Carolina uncover their passionate careers via gamification?

My role as a web designer in this project designed multiple pixel artifacts and built the landing page of the educational video game using HTML / CSS / JavaScript. ( View the demo video below )

View The Landing Page Prototype

Demo video of the web prototype I built

Context & Research
The project context and background research.
  • The project context and background research.
  • The Ideation and the design objectives we sought to balance.
  • Final Iteration to build a luxurious experience.
  • The photo of our AR game's interactive flow.
  • We polished the game experience through professional media production and added the business value propositions.

* Click the thumbnails to further learn the project details

PROJECT: VR INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN ( ONGOING )

How might we reinforce corporate onboarding training regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion ( DEI ) via virtual reality?

This is my current project and I provided technical support to this project as a developer and UX advocate. Due to NDA, I cannot fully show the project. However, I am more than welcomed to discuss my experience and reflection upon working on the project.

  • Project Goal:

    Backed by scientific evidence, we leveraged virtual reality ( VR ) in an attempt to reinforce the learning experience in the mundane onboarding training process regarding DEI in organizations.

  • Tools:

    Right now, we are using 3D Vista Virtual Tour to create and edit the experience, and also looking for Web VR technologies like ThreeJS to build out the future versions for scalability and budgeting reasons.

Fig. 3: The screenshot example of the project with our demo and user testing sessions
Fig. 3: The screenshot example of the project with our demo and user testing sessions

Thanks for Reading

If you’d like to learn more about this project / experience, feel free to reach out to me. I'd love to chat !

Check out my other projects:

UX Internship

Toshiba

Optimize the audio design and accessibility in the grocery self-checkout process.

Full-Stack Product Design

Cinematrics

A data-driven solution for movie buffs to make informed decisions in the filming industry.

A Collection of UI Prototype Projects

UI Prototype Works

Prototype responsive web UIs featuring real-client works and course projects.