Project: Icebreaker
Role: Technical Designer II
Motivation:
The project was initiated to expand the range of social activities in Microsoft Mesh environments. The goal was to create experiences that would demonstrate the value of social interactions in virtual spaces, particularly for colleagues working remotely.
Start: As a Technical Designer II at Microsoft, I was tasked with addressing this need. The project began with a brainstorming phase to generate ideas for social activities that could work well in a mixed reality setting.
Development Process:
Ideation: I came up with multiple concepts for social activities, including a spin the wheel activity and a trivia activity.
Initial Prototyping: I designed and prototyped various simple experiences to showcase these ideas. This involved using Unity and the Mesh Toolkit to create basic functional versions of each concept.
Presentation and Selection: I presented these initial prototypes to the team or stakeholders. Of the submitted prototypes, the Icebreaker activity was selected for further development.
Refinement: Once the Icebreaker concept was chosen, I collaborated with the art teams to improve the prototype. This collaboration involved enhancing the visual design, user interface, and overall user experience of the activity.
Development: Using Unity and reusable Mesh Toolkit components, I built out the full functionality of the Icebreaker activity.
Testing and Iteration: The activity went through several rounds of testing and refinement to ensure it worked well within the Mesh environment and provided an engaging user experience.
Technical Details:
Tools Used: Unity for development and Figma for design work.
Framework: Reusable Mesh Toolkit components, ensuring consistency and easier maintenance.
Compatibility: Designed to work seamlessly within Microsoft Mesh’s first-party experience.
Extensibility: Developed to be included in third-party samples, requiring clear documentation and flexible design.
Finish: The project concluded with the successful delivery of the Icebreaker activity as part of Mesh’s first-party experience and its inclusion in third-party samples.
This project stands out as a point of pride for me because it showcases my ability to generate multiple creative solutions to a problem, rapidly prototype these ideas, and then fully develop the chosen concept in collaboration with other teams. It demonstrates my skills in ideation, technical development, and cross-functional collaboration, all while working on a cutting-edge platform like Microsoft Mesh.
Prototypes built