Hello Microsoft!
I'm Jimmy, an explorer, friend, and generalist designer
To integrate into any place, I start by learning to be a local
In school, I helped design premium weddings in Malibu
I graduated UCLA in 2021 and started at Spatial, in SF
Spatial is about spaces… like Club Penguin, but for adults
We've moved from meetings, to NFT galleries, to a metaverse
Prototyping is my jam. I am happy when design is fluid
Now, a little bit about you guys, and how I relate to what you're making here
I've been talking to computers since I was thirteen years old…
And I write every day, to understand myself, the world, and to learn & grow
I feed entries into Copilot
I'm excited about voice interfaces, and helping design the personality of Copilot
Because my work at Spatial is so out-of-the-box, I'm going to start with a tactical project
Spatial Edit Mode
Addressing common customer requests for space decoration
Role — Lead Designer & PM
From our Discord, we've known that creators were frustrated when decorating their spaces
1) Lost objects (4 asks)
Creators often misplaced objects in inaccessible areas, eating up storage and pushing them past the limits for their paid Spatial+ SaaS plan.
2) Slow decoration (2 asks)
3D Assets are added one-by-one through a modal, and one of our most requested features is the ability to drag and drop assets into a space.
3) Unclear storage limits (11 asks)
Creators often misplaced objects in inaccessible areas which ate up storage, pushing them past the limits for their paid plan and causing frustration.
4) Clunky controls (2 asks)
Unlike regular 3D tools, our editing mode has always focused on accessibility. Such we lack the transform gizmos that are industry standard.
5) Locked camera views (3 asks)
Objects in Spatial are moved with sliders. Your camera perspective is locked to your avatar, so it's difficult to place objects in high places.
6) No mistake correction (6 asks)
When you accidentally move an object to the wrong position, it's hard to move it back in a precise manner with no way to undo/redo.
7) Tracking issues (24 asks)
There is no way to see a list of all your objects in scene other than walking up to each one. Stuff gets lost, eating up storage without you knowing.
8) Outdated interface (2 asks)
From our multiple pivots, all of our panels, menus, and controls for object control modes were antiquated and mismatched to our new styles.
Diving into a list of feedback, I gathered our design team and the most common requests
Considerations
2 week timeline
1 available engineer
Context
Making sense of the problems
You can have many assets in your space, but no record of them
Uploaded items would get trapped behind walls, lost forever
It's hard to decorate high places: you are ground level
People wanted drag & drop, but assets were added through a big modal
We were unforgiving with positioning mistakes, with no way to undo/redo actions
We also lacked a lot of the precision transform controls common to 3D tools
35 requests total
More than anything, our creators were frustrated about lost items eating up storage, pushing them to more expensive plans without communication of storage limits
Before diving in, I hopped on a call with our engineer, Dongphil, to understand what was on his plate for the next two weeks, so I could decide what to prioritize
Solution
So how did I address this?
Spatial has chrome that outlines the screen, meant to be simple
More robust editing tools have panels to collect actions
So on Day 2/10, I moved to map our sorted customer requests to patterns in other editor tools
Days 3-6, I spent mapping the top priority items to development phases
During this process, I communicated with Dongphil each day to uncover which features were both high impact and feasible in the short time that we had
From our collaboration, I discovered on Day 4 that duplicate objects need to be deleted as a group, so I simplified the design without or burying it
On Day 6, Dongphil executed a V1 that solved our creators' key issues: knowing their storage, and seeing all their assets in view
I also advocated for a freeform camera that let users reach and decorate those high ceilings
Short on time, I made a decision to scope down other ideas, like zoom to object and drag & drop
And I also cut gizmos, but we were able to add that in later with more Unity resources
Here is what we shipped — featuring a photo of me and my friends at the Golden Gate
Now a bit on process: I was using components that another designer was owning here & vice versa
And so I advocated for and defined a 'library' process in our shared working file
When new requirements arose, we'd ping the component owner and they'd make an update
It helped us stay in sync; we later brought the components into our main design system
Learnings
In this project, I prioritized fast, communicated proactively, and biased to action
1) Lost objects (4 asks)
Creators often misplaced objects in inaccessible areas, eating up storage and pushing them past the limits for their paid Spatial+ SaaS plan.
2) Slow decoration (2 asks)
3D Assets are added one-by-one through a modal, and one of our most requested features is the ability to drag and drop assets into a space.
3) Unclear storage limits (11 asks)
Creators often misplaced objects in inaccessible areas which ate up storage, pushing them past the limits for their paid plan and causing frustration.
4) Clunky controls (2 asks)
Unlike regular 3D tools, our editing mode has always focused on accessibility. Such we lack the transform gizmos that are industry standard.
5) Locked camera views (3 asks)
Objects in Spatial are moved with sliders. Your camera perspective is locked to your avatar, so it's difficult to place objects in high places.
6) No mistake correction (6 asks)
When you accidentally move an object to the wrong position, it's hard to move it back in a precise manner with no way to undo/redo.
7) Tracking issues (24 asks)
There is no way to see a list of all your objects in scene other than walking up to each one. Stuff gets lost, eating up storage without you knowing.
8) Outdated interface (2 asks)
From our multiple pivots, all of our panels, menus, and controls for object control modes were antiquated and mismatched to our new styles.
We weren't able to address every request, but we hit the most common ones given constraints
On launch, we improved editing for 300k creators and used the feature to pitch Walmart on a $2 million deal
I just showed a practical project…
Now, here's a really cool one—my favorite
Not all of the work at Spatial is grounded in the customer, actually
Finding product market fit, we've had to work under high ambiguity
My first project landed us on WIRED, and we grew from 8k MAU to 100k
We were for meetings, but any meeting (like this one) requires an invite
You need an invite to the party.
Without interactivity, we grew two million stunning, yet empty spaces
Now, something unique to our process is our high-fidelity design sprints
We landed on the idea for this project during one of those sprints in NYC
And so… I present
Spatial Quests
Giving people something to do
api
Gobble those McDoubles
Role — Lead Designer
We needed to help creators guide visitors through an experience
But at that time, people could only create spaces from templates
Before the sprint, I started by auditing how people unfamiliar with Spatial used it.
Like Youtube, we are a product built for everybody — so I tested at a coffee shop.
Most common remark: "It's beautiful, but I don't know what to do here."
For a metaverse to work, we needed more custom and retentive asynchronous experiences on the platform
There was an explorer side and a creator side, and I began by mapping where the explorer side could fit
Despite the simplicity of this widget, were many states to manage
Exploring every arrangement, I landed on putting the widget here
During this process, I communicated with engineers and our PM Will Chang to synthesize and adapt patterns common to successful platforms like Zepeto and Roblox
We based the design on a "Meta Loop," a habit pattern common in gaming
From coffee testing, I knew that hiding the feature in an icon would increase risk and hamper discoverability
I explored many variations, avoiding the feeling of it being "a list of chores"
This was the project that made me fall in love with motion, and prototyping with different tools
api
Sneak into the doctor's office on the west wing of the hospital
To highlight that task at any time, I broke it out of the widget
api
Tahoe Exploration
There's a lake here, and a cabin, and—oh my god… is that a bear? It's a black bear, those things are nasty.
Check out the Black Bear
When you join a space, the quest expands to show its location, then collapses to show the first task to be done
api
De Neve Dungeon
I told you there was a secret club here. You didn't listen to me. We can't just sneak into somewhere this boujee!
Plan an escape
Each tasks chains into the next, and reveals more quests set by the creator
api
Big Bear Love
Cabin trip game where players explore snowy woods, solve puzzles, build friendships, and discover love.
Check into the cabin
Quests also chain into each other, recommending more quests
api
Theo's Playdate
Now that you're phasing into preschool, you're gonna need to know how to play with others… who's first?
Play with Thomas
Play with Jayson
Play with Sasha
You can also expand the widget to pick between which task you want to track
I phased the design to prioritize our customers at the time — NFT creators
I also implemented markers that would expand and guide in 3D space
api
Start a Quest
Lumber Shredder
Ever since your dad got a degree in Forestry from the University of British Columbia, he has been raving about the lumber industry.
Earn the Forest Fire badge
chevron_right
Heroic Fisherperson
Your daughter is hungry, and there is nobody around to feed her. Wait... bruh, that's your job! Dinner needs to be ready in 30... oh no.
Earn the Sabi Dad badge
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I also cut features like multi-quest to keep the initial launch simple
Here's what we launched with.
Though we wanted to increase Day-30 retention, this project moved Day-1 retention by 3.74x for all quest completors.
We doubled down on making the platform more interactive, and pivoted again from NFT galleries to a UGC Unity metaverse
2021
2024
In a later project, I tied quests and badges to a platform rewards system
And made a store to redeem those rewards - learning Blender, Unity, React, and Git
It became the highest-monetized space on the platform and allowed creators and improved creator monetization
Learnings
In this project, I designed in ambiguity, ideated fast to inspire the team, and prototyped with speed
Unlike the project rooted in tangible customer requests, there's no answer for what the metaverse should be
I've spent a lot of time solving a problem more grand than practical…
Human connection
In an time when technology is rooted in consumption, I see a future where it facilitates active engagement
At Spatial, the thesis of my work was to make the internet more playful and interactive
Already, there is chatter about AI removing the human capacity for critical thought
I think the solution is to design so that AI feels less like an employee, and more like a partner
