Lumen – ITP Thesis Archive 2024

Abstract

Feeling lost and confused in my own career transition, I set out to understand the experience of others who’re on the familiar paths. What I discovered was an unfulfilled need for community and mentorship amongst us.

Lumen is both an artistic and pragmatic culmination of all the research, introspections and stories I’ve gathered along my personal journey of transitioning from architecture into UX design, manifested in the form of a VR experience and mobile app design. The collective need for community, mentorship and a sense of belonging is what motivated me to create a thesis project that would help myself and others like me.

The VR piece emerged from my personal need for a cathartic, immersive experience that captures the tumultuous emotional phases I endured and the role community played in my journey. The mobile app was my digital intervention that seeks to foster a sense of community and mentorship amongst career transitioners. The two experiences, although independent, are inextricably linked to reflect my complete vision of creating beyond just resonance amongst the viewers, but also a tangible solution to the challenges of career transition.

Technical Details

The VR experience was made using a combination of Unreal Engine, Rhino 3D and Blender. Architectural geometries were created in Rhino then imported into Unreal using the Data Smith plugin. The “Peru” scene was created using Unreal’s landscape feature. Blueprints were used to handle all of the interactions and some custom assets were created using Rhino and Blender.

The Figma prototype utilizes imagery and elements from the VR to maintain stylistic consistency across the two experiences. All of the assets were exported from Unreal and imported into Figma. A developed version of the app is in consideration.

Research/Context

Initially fascinated by the liminal space aesthetics movement, I soon discovered a parallel between the emotional liminal space of a career transition and my own experience of coming to ITP. From that point forward, my research became understanding the challenges other career transitioners faced and extracting opportunities for design interventions that can help us navigate these transitions smoother.

I conducted 6 user interviews which revealed to me that having a community of mentors and peers who have also experienced career transitions is of the utmost importance to my potential users. This informed me of the overarching message I needed to deliver in my VR experience on top of my own personal narrative. As for defining the mobile app functionalities, I sent out a survey which received over 30 responses. The overwhelming consensus was that users explicitly wanted mentorship features and the ability to view other people’s stories.

Wanting to use thesis as an opportunity to synthesize two of my most passionate fields, VR and UX, without compromising either medium, I crafted two distinct but linked experiences with the aim of developing an artifact that can help others and myself through these periods of liminality. An anchoring element in both pieces are the four phases denoted by the Chinese characters, each representing a distinct state-of-mind. The visual language of both experiences remains consistent by incorporating motifs and elements from the VR into the app experience.

Abstract

Technical Details

Research/Context

Further Reading