HoloLens 2 Developer Experience
Apr 2018 – Present, Mixed Reality | Microsoft
Background
As the team built exciting experiences that uses new input modalities such as hand-tracking and eye-tracking input for HoloLens 2, I started defining the crucial design area that we need to work on to provide a great developer experience. Since the platform cannot succeed without great content from developers and creators, it was crucial to have robust resources such as tools, documentation, and tutorials.
Role
Based on the learnings from HoloLens 1st gen and HoloToolkit (MRTK v1) and my personal experiences in various types of Mixed Reality projects, I started identifying and visualizing the crucial developer experience areas. I socialized it through multiple channels across the organizations to help the team see the big picture and plan a coherent experience. Through collaborations with program managers and engineering leads, the team could reach a shared understanding of the important areas.
I helped the team turn these focus areas into detailed design tasks and oversaw the overall design execution process. To achieve the design vision and quality, I’ve worn many hats in my role ranging from visual designer, interaction designer, design integrator, prototyper, technical writer, to design evangelist. Throughout the entire project, my personal experience as an indie app designer/developer/publisher helped me design and polish the experience based on deep empathy.
Outcomes
Many of the following areas have dedicated project pages. You can check out project details through the links.
Building Blocks
I led the overall design of the MRTK’s UX building blocks. I closely worked with the engineering team to integrate visual and interaction details that match the HoloLens system’s UX so that customers can achieve the same user experience quality easily and quickly.
Learn more about MRTK for HoloLens 2
Example Scenes
Using the building blocks, I created example scenes that demonstrate how MRTK’s building blocks work and how they can be used. The ‘Hand Interaction Examples’ scene became one of the most popular examples for HoloLens 2 developer experience.
Learn more about MRTK for HoloLens 2
Sample Apps
Updated sample apps with MRTK v2 and a new design that leverages HoloLens 2’s hand-tracking and eye-tracking input. I wrote a medium article to share this experience with the community.
Check out the article ‘Bringing the Periodic Table of the Elements app to HoloLens 2 with MRTK v2’
Tutorials
Collaborated with the content team to design, author, review, and publish the tutorials for HoloLens 2. Worked with engineers and program managers to validate the flow, find pitfalls, refine the learning path.
Documentation
Based on the learning from our product design iterations, partner engagements, and user research studies, I wrote documentation on various Mixed Reality topics. It includes design guidelines, core concepts, case studies, best practices, technical guidelines, sample app introductions, and step-by-step tutorials.