Interaction Designer
12 Months
See Below
Research team
Songyi Ahn
Rai Arriaga
Dalton Bouzek
Shane Burrell
Maxwell Ely
Laura Gattis
Sam Lorenzo
Emmanuel Maduneme
Nishat Parvez
Ramtin Ranjpour
Priya Sage
Martha Tejedara
Design Team
Kathleen Darby
Luke Walker
Jason deParrie-Turner
Isaac Wu
Rachel Marty
Sam Morrison
Kea Powell
Faculty Leads
Danny Pimentel
Dr. Donna Davis
Dr. Jakki Bailey
Nikki Dunsire
Beneath the Surface is an AR experience for Snap Spectacles and mobile developed in partnership with the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW). The project brings Oregon's Otter Rock Marine Reserve to life through immersive storytelling, allowing users to explore tide pools, kelp forests, and sand dollar beds, culminating in a breathtaking moment of a breaching humpback whale. Designed to blend research, education, and play, the experience encourages ocean empathy and awareness of marine conservation.
As part of the design team, I worked on the interactive design for Snap's mobile AR experience, contributed to interaction concepts for Spectacles, and optimized 3D assets in Blender to improve performance across both platforms.
VIDEO
DEMO
While awareness and public support for Oregon’s marine reserves have increased over time, public understanding and knowledge about their purpose, benefits, and ecological importance have not kept pace. Many visitors appreciate the scenery of places like Otter Rock, but lack a deeper awareness of marine conservation, protected habitats, and their own role in maintaining ocean health.
In partnership with the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW) and Snap, the project aims to create an immersive AR experience that educates and connects audiences with the Otter Rock Marine Reserve. The goal is to foster ocean empathy, raise awareness of marine conservation, and help visitors understand their role in protecting coastal ecosystems.
Before building the XR experience, our team conducted field research at the Otter Rock Marine Reserve on November 7, 2024. Alongside Nathan Bowser from Niantic (creators of Pokémon Go), we captured environmental scans to support the AR design process and interviewed visitors to learn how they perceive marine reserves.
These semi-structured interviews with seven participants helped us identify educational needs, desired AR features, and barriers to using technology in natural settings. With support from Snapchat, participants also tested Snap Spectacles, allowing our team to observe firsthand reactions to AR tools and gather valuable insights for designing accessible, immersive educational experiences.
RESEARCH
RESULT
Preliminary Research Results
100% of participants expressed a desire to learn more about the marine life at Otter Rock.
75% stated they would like to know more about the history of Otter Rock.
71% stated they would like to learn more about other marine life at Otter Rock.
Educational Approach
• Focus on conservation messaging
• Include historical context
• Emphasize local ecosystem importance
• Connect to broader environmental issues
Content Balance
• Blend educational and entertainment elements
• Include both basic and detailed information
• Maintain connection to natural environment
Multiple User Considerations
• Design for both children and adults
• Account for various technology comfort levels
• Consider stationary viewing stations
With the insights gathered from our users, we began developing the user flow for the mobile version of the AR experience. This flow outlines how users navigate the application, ensuring a seamless and intuitive experience that aligns with their needs and expectations.
In this experience, users can explore three unique environments based on the Otter Rock Marine Reserve. Upon completing their exploration, they unlock a special “whale” animation as a rewarding finale to their journey.
After finalizing the user flow for the mobile version, we moved on to prototyping. Given that our target demographic primarily consists of older adults, we focused on creating an experience that is easy to navigate with an intuitive design. Here are some of the changes we implemented based on our initial sketches created in Figma.
Now, it’s time to transition our initial design into Lens Studio, transforming it from a 2D concept into a fully interactive 3D AR experience. Since not everyone has Snapchat, Web AR emerged as the most suitable option due to its accessibility and ease of use. However, the web-based nature of the experience presents some limitations in achieving the full immersive potential of AR compared to native applications. Striking a balance between accessibility and immersive design became a key focus during this phase.
Kathleen Darby, one of the designers on our team, led the 3D asset creation for Beneath the Surface. She established a hybrid workflow that combined photogrammetry and manual modeling to recreate Otter Rock’s marine habitats in AR. Using scans captured in Scaniverse, Kathleen cleaned and optimized terrain meshes for mobile performance and developed detailed marine species and objects with Meshy, Blender, and Substance Painter. Her work ensured a cohesive, high-quality visual identity across both Snap Spectacles and mobile platforms.
LENS STUDIO
DEVELOPMENT
Luke Walker, another designer and developer on our team, led the technical implementation of Beneath the Surface in Snapchat’s Lens Studio. He translated our design concepts and 3D assets into an interactive AR experience for both mobile and Snap Spectacles platforms. Luke handled environment setup, scripting, and performance optimization within Lens Studio, ensuring that each scene, from the tide pools to the whale breaching finale, functioned smoothly and delivered a cohesive, immersive experience across devices.
Refining the current mobile prototype to improve usability, streamline interactions, and create a more engaging educational experience for visitors.
Advancing the Snap Spectacles version by developing an interactive tide pool environment that enhances immersion through intuitive gesture-based controls and spatial storytelling.
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