Gratitude Garden is an award-winning, interactive Augmented Reality experience that invites users to visualize their gratitude in a global digital garden.
Leveraging my neuroscience research on the impact of journaling and gardening, I led and defined the UX/UI of the Gratitude Garden.
Skills & Tools
Unity
Visual design
UX Thinking
Project Overview
Figma
Art Direction
Wireframing
At the height of the pandemic, many individuals were isolated indoors and felt a lack of connection with a broader community. To address this problem, my team and I created a digital experience that invited people from all over the world to a global garden that unraveled moments of delight.
Through strategy immersion and deep research, we identified design elements and behaviors that bring calmness and gratitude to the mind.
Goals
Create an engaging space that helps audiences explore their daily environments with Augmented Reality
Design a responsive and visually engaging digital experience that excites and brings together users globally
Inspire users to practice moments of gratitude in their day-to-day lives
Role
Creative Lead & Lead Designer
How to play
This game presents the users with multiple, intentional prompts that help them reflect and tune into their current state of emotions. Based on their answers, the system builds a personalized flower that they can then plant in the digital global garden space seen through Augmented Reality. Due to the nature of it being AR, the garden can be accessed anywhere in their living spaces - bringing the outdoors indoors.
Developing the userflow
After drafting the user flow for the mobile experience, we developed the questionnaires based on neuroscience research on the most efficient ways to stimulate the brain areas that foster feelings of gratitude. For each answer, our software engineers mapped different categories of words to the unique combinations of the colors, shapes, types, heights of petals and stems.
Presenting at Cannes XR Festival
We had the unique opportunity to pitch and present the project at the Cannes XR Festival as a candidate for Emerging Technology. The festival showcased the cutting edge of this new era in storytelling, challenging convention, embracing new technologies, and celebrating new artists in the space. As a Top 10 Finalist, we received personal feedback from the panel of judges and future development recommendations on improving and expanding the technology.
