© Lucas Wozniak 2024
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My team and I have completed the data analysis of our initial usability study and decided to continue our usability study iterations before publishing a more comprehensive research paper next year. Our next step is to prototype another iteration of our app in the coming couple of months in light of the usability feedback.
One of the key insights we distilled is the UX drawback of users needing to hold the phone running the app out in front of them throughout the experience, which takes away from their mindfulness immersion. In light of this, we have been exploring non-line-of-sight hardware setups and will likely be investing in this ultra-wideband prototyping kit soon to iterate on hands-free UX possibilities. Beyond UX improvements to form, we are exploring more semantically rich, existentially oriented content than open-ended soundscapes or playful exercises, such as interactive journaling exercises.
Currently, my team and I are conducting a set of usability studies to evaluate various design direction prototypes.
In March, I gave a lecture and conducted a co-design workshop with Cornell's Positive Design Studio class.
I'm co-authoring design and research papers to be published in conference proceedings (ACM DIS and ACM SUI).
Abstract for our design paper:
The medium of Audio Augmented Reality (AAR) has received limited attention within the HCI community, yet the interactive potential of AAR warrants a welcome re-evaluation in the context of Positive Design (i.e., design informed by Positive Psychology). With our current demonstration, we consider whether design for the mind-body connection may yet reach new heights through the medium of AAR owing to its unique experiential affordances of: Movement (i.e., as informed by somatic psychology); audiovisual and haptic guidance (i.e., mediators of engagement); and immediate societal impact (i.e., access to a smartphone). Our playful prototype provokes designers to re-consider the potential opportunities of AAR as an immediately-available interactive medium through which smartphones can support users’ positive emotion regulation and well-being.
~~ Demo videos of a recent "playful experience"-focused rendition of the app, which was submitted to the ACM DIS conference:
Full six-minute walkthrough of a user’s POV while testing the demo app. Haptic vibrations being felt by the user (which can only be experienced on-device in the app) are visualized as a white dot that appears for the duration of the vibration.
Two-minute walkthrough of an extra challenge experience that could be added after or interchanged with the “flying bird paths” scene exhibited in the full demo video above.
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At Neurohue and in collaboration with Cornell's Meta Design and Technology Lab, I've been leading the ideation, design, and engineering of prototypes of a spatial audio AR mindfulness app for anxiety reduction, alongside a multidisciplinary team of designers and researchers.
The app invites users to interact with mobile AR-based spatial soundscapes which are “anchored” in their physical surroundings and respond to their body movements.
{{sect1}}
My team and I have completed the data analysis of our initial usability study and decided to continue our usability study iterations before publishing a more comprehensive research paper next year. Our next step is to prototype another iteration of our app in the coming couple of months in light of the usability feedback.
One of the key insights we distilled is the UX drawback of users needing to hold the phone running the app out in front of them throughout the experience, which takes away from their mindfulness immersion. In light of this, we have been exploring non-line-of-sight hardware setups and will likely be investing in this ultra-wideband prototyping kit soon to iterate on hands-free UX possibilities. Beyond UX improvements to form, we are exploring more semantically rich, existentially oriented content than open-ended soundscapes or playful exercises, such as interactive journaling exercises.
Currently, my team and I are conducting a set of usability studies to evaluate various design direction prototypes.
In March, I gave a lecture and conducted a co-design workshop with Cornell's Positive Design Studio class.
I'm co-authoring design and research papers to be published in conference proceedings (ACM DIS and ACM SUI).
Abstract for our design paper:
The medium of Audio Augmented Reality (AAR) has received limited attention within the HCI community, yet the interactive potential of AAR warrants a welcome re-evaluation in the context of Positive Design (i.e., design informed by Positive Psychology). With our current demonstration, we consider whether design for the mind-body connection may yet reach new heights through the medium of AAR owing to its unique experiential affordances of: Movement (i.e., as informed by somatic psychology); audiovisual and haptic guidance (i.e., mediators of engagement); and immediate societal impact (i.e., access to a smartphone). Our playful prototype provokes designers to re-consider the potential opportunities of AAR as an immediately-available interactive medium through which smartphones can support users’ positive emotion regulation and well-being.
~~ Demo videos of a recent "playful experience"-focused rendition of the app, which was submitted to the ACM DIS conference:
Full six-minute walkthrough of a user’s POV while testing the demo app. Haptic vibrations being felt by the user (which can only be experienced on-device in the app) are visualized as a white dot that appears for the duration of the vibration.
Two-minute walkthrough of an extra challenge experience that could be added after or interchanged with the “flying bird paths” scene exhibited in the full demo video above.
{{sect2}}
At Neurohue and in collaboration with Cornell's Meta Design and Technology Lab, I've been leading the ideation, design, and engineering of prototypes of a spatial audio AR mindfulness app for anxiety reduction, alongside a multidisciplinary team of designers and researchers.
The app invites users to interact with mobile AR-based spatial soundscapes which are “anchored” in their physical surroundings and respond to their body movements.
