Problem

Real estate developments usually rely on static renderings and pitch decks—pretty uninspiring when you’re trying to get future tenants or investors excited. For a $4B smart city project like ocV!BE, we needed something a lot more immersive.

Opportunity

Partnering with Microsoft and working alongside another UX designer, I helped concept a mixed-reality experience using HoloLens 2. The goal: turn a development site into a living, interactive model people could actually walk through—right from a pavilion across the street.

Process

We started by researching how AR is used in architecture—digging into everything from spatial anchors to hand gestures to tabletop UI layouts. I mapped out a flow where users could explore a digital twin of the site, using natural hand gestures to scale the model from table-size to full scale. We wireframed core moments: onboarding, model interaction, building info panels, and multi-user collaboration. I focused on making the UI feel spatial but usable—buttons you could reach and grab, not menus floating in space. We iterated on interaction models and refined based on internal testing and tech constraints.

Result

We built a strong UX foundation that the team later expanded into a full multi-user experience. The project pushed my thinking about spatial design and made it clear that 2D tools like Sketch just don’t cut it when designing in 3D space. It was a crash course in what real-world AR should feel like—and how it can totally reshape how we sell, understand, and explore physical spaces.