Our guest: Alexis Puchek, Design Director, frog Austin

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Design Mind frogcast Ep. 14 – Increase Your Intention Span

Intentions always matter when it comes to making things for real people in the real world. Whether it&#8217;s taking the proper time to deeply understand the challenge you&#8217;re trying to solve, scoping a diverse team that better reflects your customer and community, or asking the hard questions about a design&#8217;s potential impact, the meaning we infuse into what we make is as important as the final product. frog Design Director Alexis Puchek joins us to explain the importance of leading with intentionality throughout the entire process—and the consequences of failing to do so.
Listen to the podcast episode and find transcripts below. You can also find us on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/design-mind-frogcast/id1541644073" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5mxbuRY6KtBwIrNhWhu0sx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Spotify</a> and anywhere you listen to podcasts.

How to Uncover Valuable Design Insights: 3 Steps to Understanding the Unknown

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Customer-Insight-Report

Elizabeth Wood

Alexis Du Mond Puchek

Audio Production by

Authors

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A Conversation on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at frog 


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Change Takes Root in the Pond

During this year of unprecedented change, frogs from around our global studios have come together to voice their concerns about issues of diversity, equity and inclusion, both internally and in the world at large. We spoke with two frogs who have been particularly active and engaged on the studio and community level. Vanessa Kirby is a Senior HR Business Partner supporting frog’s New York studio, and leads frog’s global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. Alexis Puchek is a Principal Director of Design in frog&#8217;s Austin studio. She leads frog’s interaction design practice in North America, runs client projects as a creative director, oversees the internship program in the Austin Studio, and is a member of the DEI Committee.

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What does “diversity, equity and inclusion” really mean, and why is it so relevant for the design industry right now? 
AP: To break down the definition: Diversity is moving away from a homogenized group perspective, toward bringing together different voices and participants with different ages, sexualities, genders, disciplines, abilities, ethnicities, languages, perspectives. Equity is about creating opportunities that are accessible to all who are participating, taking into consideration their differences in backgrounds, and realizing that not everyone achieves success or has needs in the exact same way. And then I would say inclusion, for me, is making sure that everyone feels “safe” and that they have equal footing to opportunities and sharing their voices, bringing everyone to the table, but also recognizing that the table was probably built from a Eurocentric perspective, and that the structure itself needs to be reconsidered to be inclusive.
When it comes to the field of design specifically, I believe that diverse voices, perspectives, skill sets, backgrounds, and makers create better solutions, period, full stop. I just don&#8217;t think you can achieve amazing solutions that are well thought through and intentional if you don&#8217;t have a non-homogenized group of people and voices and perspectives to contribute.
VK: I agree. And when it comes to diversity, inclusion, equity–the biggest thing for me is equity, which is why design is not as diverse as it could be when it comes to underrepresented minorities. And by that I mean Black people, Latinx people, Asian-American and Pacific Islanders, Indigenous Americans, and the LGBTQ+ community, particularly trans folks. We don&#8217;t want to meet people where they are, we want people to be where we are, and that is why there&#8217;s a lack of diversity. 
How did you get involved with the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee at frog? 
VK: I think that no matter where I work, I&#8217;m always involved in something diversity-related, just because of how I identify, as a Black gay woman. Whether I really have the time or not, I’ve always been passionate about these issues, and I want to make sure that people are supported and have an inclusive environment. I want to be in the loop. Ultimately it&#8217;s just about wanting to make sure people get the support that they need when they come into an organization as a minority. So starting at frog as part of HR, I was able to jump in and start supporting it because of my role, but also because of my personal interest.
AP: Yeah, I think I&#8217;ve kind of been like the de facto queer expert since I started my career. It&#8217;s (fortunately and unfortunately) a position that often gets put on individuals that are a part of minority groups. I started mentoring queer kids in college, once I got my own head wrapped around my sexuality and my own authenticity. And then in my working career, I&#8217;ve mentored people from entry level all the way up to the executive suite, and frog has been no different. I joined the DEI Committee because there were conversations happening in silos and I didn&#8217;t see any global change from those conversations. Being a part of the global committee helps reassure me that the perspectives, the voices, the contributions all will create real change and foster a supportive, inclusive environment, considerate of individuals that may or may not have been considered before.
VK: I agree—I think being on the committee is one way to really stress how important these issues are, and having an executive sponsor is also super important. That was really important for me. Because the only way change will ever happen in the organization is if it is top-down. So being on this committee, it makes me feel like everything is more possible because we have an executive in the organization (Anthony Pannozzo, CDO North America) who’s so bought-in.
AP: That&#8217;s a really great point. Prior to 2020, DEI at frog existed, but it was really grassroots, where studios led their own initiatives. We created a global committee, but it was mostly made up of people like me, who opted in based on already being vocal in this space or being an activist. But we didn&#8217;t have that executive investment, so it was a mixed bag in terms of real success. We saw some change in studios. Some conversations would happen over Slack. But this feels so much different, I think—to your point, Vanessa—because we have executive sponsorship, there is an actual investment from frog moving forward into DEI commitments, and that means that we can also hold ourselves accountable because it&#8217;s bigger than people who don&#8217;t really have an official role. It&#8217;s now what frog is doing.
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What sparked the shift in the efforts or organization around frog’s DEI Committee? 
VK: I&#8217;m new to frog. I&#8217;ve been here for just over six months, but even still, I did see a very big shift in June, which was unfortunately due to the violence against underrepresented minorities, particularly Black people, in the United States. After the highly publicized murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, which sparked protests around the country and the world, we saw how companies were pushed to react, many looking around saying, “Oh my God, what are we doing? How are we going to show up?” I think that got frog as a company to ask some hard questions, like &#8220;What did we do before? How can we be better?&#8221; So when I joined frog, like Alexis said, it’s not like nothing had existed in terms of DEI. I know there’d been speaking and networking events, as well as trainings, and frogs themselves are very motivated to create change, so they create space to make things happen. But it wasn&#8217;t anything, I think, like it is now. The Black Lives Matter movement coming to a head in the public eye really got people on board with the fact that leadership has to be held accountable. We have to have metrics, we have to have programming in place that&#8217;s formalized and supported by our executive team. And that shows now that we have our CEO saying that this is important and continuing to ask how we’re moving forward. So I think that&#8217;s the big change.
AP: Historically, the design industry, and most industries for that matter, have been a part of or directly responsible for oppressive systems. It&#8217;s really infuriating, yet not that surprising that it took such violence against Black people in this country to really wake people up—wake white people up. I think what is unfortunate is that this awakening spurred a lot of these performative actions of allyship, so that individuals and companies could pat themselves on the back and say that they participated in this moment or the movement. It&#8217;s really important for us to hold ourselves accountable to the commitments we&#8217;ve made–and I think this is the real change that I&#8217;ve seen in 2020 from the kind of grassroots initiatives that we were working on before. There is a generated voice, an activism, and global community of people who are trying to stand up and against oppressive systems. frog is buying into that, and is investing in that, and holding ourselves accountable to participate in an educated and intentional way.
What are some ways in which frog is creating this change within the culture or organization, and how are we able to create safe spaces to have these conversations?
VK: I shouldn’t speak for everybody—but I think it&#8217;s hard to make any space truly 100 percent safe, just period. To me, “safe space” is really about those people in our lives we feel safe with, people that we have relationships with, that we trust, that we identify with, that have shown us ongoing support, right? So when people come into spaces where we&#8217;re going to have conversations about something as serious as racism and violence against Black people, that is something that&#8217;s really emotional; it can be triggering for people, or bring shame around what people have or have not done. So there&#8217;s all these emotions flying around. I’m a part of HR, and can assure you there&#8217;s never going to be any retaliation for sharing your feelings. We want to hear from you, we want to know how to make things better for people to thrive and feel comfortable at work. But as an individual, the fact is you&#8217;re being vulnerable in sharing, and that&#8217;s really difficult to do. After you share things about yourself, you’ve shared things about yourself. And now they live in the minds of people you’ve shared them with. 
But we have tried to create opportunities for people to engage throughout this whole process. Fortunately, we are privileged enough to have access to online platforms and collaboration tools that have really helped facilitate these conversations while we’re all still working remote. It took some time to get used to, but I think we&#8217;re doing a good job of staying connected in that way in general. We&#8217;ve had speakers come in to share their experiences as Black professionals in corporate America, their upbringing, and the discrimination and racism they faced while navigating their careers. We&#8217;ve also helped facilitate conscious conversations with an exercise that we did in a couple of studios where we were all asked to explore our own privilege and share that with each other. So from my experience here, frogs are really big on communicating how they feel, the changes they want to see, and being open about those things. And we definitely create space for people to do that. But I think it’s always important to remember that these conversations are difficult, and we can’t expect people to all have the same comfort levels around sharing or participating. 
AP: Yeah, without repeating any of the awesome initiatives that Vanessa mentioned, one thing I thought was really powerful at frog was a letter written from so many global frogs, from all levels, articulating their expectations around DEI commitments and accountability from this company. It was open and honest and super transparent into how people felt the company was achieving or not achieving their expectations. And it was socialized all around the globe. It went all the way up to executive leadership and the president of the company, and our environment was at least perceived to be safe enough to even do that, for people not to fear for their jobs or anything else in circulating and socializing such an honest letter. And I&#8217;m really proud that this is the environment that we worked in already, and that people felt like this was a big enough issue for them to commit to, regardless of whether or not it had accountability on their job. Beyond that, I agree with Vanessa–it&#8217;s so impossible to create truly safe spaces. But at least our commitments from frog seem to be facilitating further opportunities around discussing and sharing perspectives, whether they&#8217;re difficult or familiar to us, and I&#8217;m seeing some more active participation in conversations from people who weren&#8217;t necessarily sharing their voice prior. Whether that&#8217;s on the studio level or in what we call Monday Morning Meetings, which every studio has every Monday morning, or in our global diversity Slack channel, which is, you know, shooting something into the ether that everyone can see. 
VK: That open letter was awesome. I&#8217;m so glad you brought that up, Alexis. And to your point, it did prove that at least some people felt comfortable enough to say, “This is a safe space where I&#8217;m not going to be worried about retaliation. I can speak my mind. I can tell leadership what I want to see, the change I want to see.” That was really amazing, to see people feel like they had the power to ask for the change they wanted to see.

Do you think these efforts are really beginning to break down the status quo in design, and the world at large? 
VK: I think it’s important to note that when it comes to racism and discrimination, this is not our first time at the rodeo. I find it hard to believe that people working (sometimes for decades) in the design field never noticed that they did not have a diverse workplace, or they did not have diverse leadership. So, why would it be different now? We&#8217;ve had Black Lives Matter protests before, we’ve seen the outrage on social media when other people were killed. So, why now? What’s different? I’d love to know from you, Alexis, as a designer, if you&#8217;ve ever seen a shift like this before in the industry, where people are like, “Yes, we have to change it,” and then it’s just status quo, nothing changed. Or if you feel like somehow, there&#8217;s going to be a difference now?
AP: I have seen it in the past where voices spur up and the rallying cry happens, and everyone wants to do something, and then it just gets squashed down. What I&#8217;m seeing now that feels so different is that there are so many groups, both historically and currently oppressed BIPOC and marginalized people, that this global dialogue and movement finally seems to be happening at scale. And it&#8217;s also being recognized and reported on in the media. And then that recognition is perpetuating down into organizations, design industries included. So now, you&#8217;re seeing all of these companies speak about racism and how they are actively fighting against it, or what their stance is. 
When we think about design in particular, what is really critical for us to continue to think about is universal design practices. Yes, we are a human-centered design company, and many companies focus on human-centered design or design thinking practices, but I think too often it&#8217;s really easy for us to think about only the people we&#8217;re designing for, which is maybe one sub-community or a subgroup of people. What I really took to heart from attending <a href="https://wherearetheblackdesigners.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Where Are the Black Designers?</a> is to ask, &#8220;Are there any communities that this design might actively cause harm to?&#8221; And I think that was really poignant for me, because I&#8217;ve always been a voice of the user, but I was doing so from my perspective, from my background, with my biases and my privilege. So I think because of these conversations we’re having about universal design principles and how to actively fight against bias, I am optimistic to say this will continue forward. 
What are some ways that you see these universal design practices coming to life in frog’s client work? 
AP: The impact that design can have when designers listen to, live in, and participate with communities, is huge. Being invested in this way allows us to help solve problems and create more valuable solutions together with the people who are in the most need. I’ve seen that in the work I’ve done at frog around accessibility, healthcare solutions for Veterans, and reimagining the energy sector. But when we’re talking about universal design practices, it doesn’t just stop at people—design also has an impact on the manufacturing of more things, which in turn affects the environment. We need to have the hard conversations and make the hard decisions together as a global company and culture to figure out what our priorities are, not only for continuing in the work that we do, but for literally continuing in our existence as a society. When we think about impact work, many designers—many people—really want to change the world. Impact work creates a direct connection to empathetic, community-driven, meaningful work, and it allows us to effect change that may have a local, global or environmental impact, which is universal design at its finest. It allows us to solve problems and create solutions that will inherently benefit us all. Who wouldn&#8217;t want to do that? But we also have to be aware that what we make and design has lasting consequences. As designers, we need to be really intentional and thoughtful about what we do and what we put into the world.
VK: That’s a great point, Alexis. Additionally, the question I pose for myself and for anybody thinking about diversity, equity, inclusion is: How are you going to hold yourself accountable and those in your life accountable to change? What’s your commitment to change?
Find out more about frog’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion <a href="https://www.frog.co/culture/dei" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Vanessa Kirby

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How Extended Reality enhances our capabilities, storytelling, and collaboration

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Extended Realities Become Reality

Augmented and virtual reality systems are rapidly evolving from emerging technologies into multi-billion dollar industries. But creating solutions that either immerse users in a wholly artificial environment (VR) or augment their environments (AR) with mixed reality (MR) components is a major challenge. In order to ensure clarity, context, sensory balance and that VR/AR systems meaningfully enhance users’ environmental capabilities and experiences, such systems must be designed with human users, not technology, at their center. frog designs and builds Extended Reality (XR) experiences that increase the efficiency and agency of users in their work environments, delight and engage consumers through participatory encounters, and infuse environments with machine intelligence to create platforms that naturally foster deeper connections between the user and their surroundings.
New and existing clients are increasingly looking to frog for guidance and innovative design solutions that utilize XR hardware and software platforms. While we’ve developed a wide variety of XR implementations and uses, our clients have seen the most successful outcomes when they see XR as an enabler for other experiences and processes. The three most common enabling methods use Extended Reality:
1) As a means to enable human superpowers 
2) As a method of facilitating compelling storytelling 
3) As a tool to accelerate the product development cycle.
Here’s a peek into how frog XR solutions have helped our clients.

When we talk about enabling human superpowers, we mean using Extended Reality technology as an intelligent, robust, and insight-driven aide that gives people the ability to do more, better. XR allows for the creation of layered realities that can both respond to and inform human users, efficiently and effectively increasing their agency within the connected environment. 
 
In our partnerships with healthcare clients, frog has demonstrated the potential of XR systems to expand and improve therapeutic options and outcomes.  One such proof of concept project aimed to develop a new pain management mechanism for individuals undergoing burn care therapy. While opioids are the mainstay of pain management, current pain control protocols are inadequate for many burn patients. Alternative measures such as distraction, however, are known to be effective. With this in mind, the frog team set out to create a <a href="https://www.frog.co/designmind/vr-care-for-burn-patients">low-cost headset and virtual reality game</a> suitable for burn care patients. The flexibility of XR technology allowed for design solutions that <a href="https://www.frog.co/designmind/virtual-reality-vrcare-pain-reduction">accommodate burn patients’ needs and mobility constraints</a> during treatment while also providing an open-source gaming concept that gives other developers the opportunity to create their own experiences for patient use. In addition to expanding the range of marketable healthcare technology, this application of Extended Reality demonstrates the viability of safer, more affordable means of pain management. By immersing patients in a virtual reality experience, we can extend their innate pain management capabilities, allowing them to take advantage of the brain’s ability to divert attention away from sensations like pain and consciously refocus it on other information-processing activities.
Current Landscape
PwC&#8217;s “<a href="https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/technology/emerging-technology/assets/pwc-understanding-the-effectiveness-of-soft-skills-training-in-the-enterprise-a-study.pdf">The Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Soft Skills Training in the Enterprise</a>” study focused on inclusive leadership training in one of three methods—classroom, e-learning, and v-learning. The study found that VR learners were 275 percent more confident to act on what they learned in the training, four times faster to train than classroom learners and four times more focused than e-learners. Additionally, these VR learners felt 3.75 times more emotionally connected to the material than classroom learners. 
Future Considerations
Extended Reality experiences must be engaging, usable, and provide continual value. Introducing XR purely for the sake of innovative technology has the potential to create over-orchestrated solutions and new hurdles, hindering capabilities rather than enhancing them. Any XR solution should help deliver on the core promise of the business and enhance the overall user experience.
As technology merges more seamlessly with individual users, data collection and privacy practices will become increasingly important. Collections of human metadata from connected XR devices could be exploited for marketing purposes, while VR hardware enhancements such as eye tracking (for foveated rendering or interpupillary adjustments) might also allow for unwanted data collection. Especially as more data migrates to the cloud, systems that collect and protect user data must be carefully considered.

Enabling Human Superpowers 

frog believes that storytelling is key for the success of any new venture or design solution, regardless of whether we’re working with a cultural institution, a new startup or a Fortune 100 conglomerate. If we can’t convince a customer of the value inherent in a new experience, or if the corporate board can&#8217;t see the benefits of a new product design, then innovative initiatives may not succeed. Extended Reality enables organizations to tell compelling stories by immersing the audience in narratives set in dynamic virtual environments. 
 
frog worked with TouchTunes to redesign their <a href="https://www.frog.co/work/reinventing-the-touchtunes-digital-jukebox-for-next-gen-in-venue-entertainment">digital jukebox system</a>, combining its hardware, software and services into a seamless, connected experience that helped establish TouchTunes as a leader in digital entertainment services for venues across North America. In order to communicate the intent and features of the redesign, frog built a VR demonstration of the new product that the client could walk through and interact with. The virtual experience allowed the stakeholder teams to personally engage the new product at scale and told a visceral story about the future environments the product would live in. 
 
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, one of the most influential cultural institutions in the US, is a recognized leader in using technology to engage both art lovers and new audiences. For its Spring 2018 special exhibition, Rene Magritte: The Fifth Season, SFMoMA asked frog to help them create an “<a href="https://www.frog.co/work/augmented-reality-meets-fine-art">interpretive gallery</a>” in which museum visitors could experience “the paradoxes at work in reality” that Magritte explored in his late-career work. This immersive space drew the audience into a spatial and participatory narrative by compelling them to solve augmented reality puzzles based on motifs found in Magritte’s paintings, engaging viewers in a completely different way than exhibitions of the past.
Current Landscape
Extended Reality adaptations to traditional storytelling formats like film, video games and journalism have been key to the rise of XR experiences in recent years. For example, the New York Times has embedded augmented reality elements to enhance reader context in stories covering topics such as the Olympics and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/spotlight/augmented-reality">COVID-19</a>. In the latter, readers can visualize the recommended social distancing range by placing a ring around themselves using an augmented reality overlay. Societal expectations for these types of immersive and convergent storytelling experiences will continue to grow as long as they enhance comprehension and provide value to the end user. 
Future Considerations
Game engines and real-time rendering methods are evolving rapidly. Epic Games’ <a href="https://www.unrealengine.com/">Unreal Engine</a>–the foundation of the hugely popular game Fortnite–is one of the key technologies being used to <a href="https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/features/vr-ar-and-mr-xr-support">build new XR experiences</a> and speed the production of hit shows like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUnxzVOs3rk">The Mandalorian</a> on Disney+. With Unreal Engine 5, Epic Games achieved a major breakthrough in real-time rendering, enabling the <a href="https://vimeo.com/417882964">visualization of billions of polygons</a> in each frame. Such advances will speed the convergence of film, game design and XR, unleashing immersive, cinema-quality and hyper-realistic XR product storytelling experiences in the future. The physics and lighting built into these game-engine driven XR visualizations will allow consumers to explore products in highly dynamic and customizable ways, enhancing comprehension of fit, feel and scale of everything from clothing to automobiles.

Facilitating Compelling Storytelling

Designing tangible new products for our clients has been core to frog’s legacy since the founding of the company 50 years ago. Close collaboration between cross-disciplinary team members and rapid iteration during the product design process have been key to frog’s success and to our ability to bring new products to market quickly. Extended Reality tools and processes have even further enhanced and improved the way we work. We use XR systems in diverse ways, from testing new design simulations with future customers to iterating industrial design and architecture at scale.
Recently frog designed a state-of-the-art collaborative lab for one of the leading genome research groups in the world. Their lead investigator and founder wanted to &#8220;create a signature, intelligent, sentient work environment where people come to do the best work of their life.&#8221; frog designed new workflows, collaboration tools, rituals and spaces to support and evoke that ethos, and then built a full-scale VR mock-up of the entire space, complete with functioning prototypes of the workbench, storage systems and lighting. By sharing our design with the client in VR, we used XR technology in the same collaborative spirit that the lab was intended to embody.
In 2019 frog helped an autonomous scooter company design a vehicle that transcends the 3-wheeled vehicle stereotype into a vehicle that people will love to drive. We were asked to evaluate the client’s current autonomous scooter prototype and develop a design that would be more competitive in today’s market. Because building a vehicle appearance model requires a lot of time, money and resources, we instead used VR models to assess our vehicle designs on a daily basis, leveraging the latest technology to review the form, iterate quickly and save time and money for the client. 
Current Landscape
The current landscape of XR product design requires that designers and developers reconcile competing AR and VR hardware platforms, a limited selection of collaboration software, and a low degree of interoperability. Current CAD software is slowly adopting XR systems as another output for display and collaboration, but improvements to XR software and hardware standards are necessary before we are able to collaborate with teams more holistically in a less restrictive workflow. The <a href="https://www.khronos.org/news/press/multiple-conformant-openxr-implementations-ship-bringing-to-life-the-dream-of-portable-xr-applications">OpenXR runtime standards</a> are currently contributing to greater hardware and software interoperability, which will help make XR collaboration more easily achievable. This means that present day XR collaboration applications can be easily developed to run across a range of hardware from VR and AR headsets to mobile AR devices. This could have profound implications given our new remote-working norms and varying levels of access to XR hardware for distributed employees. 
Future Considerations
In the future we will be able work on complex design problems untethered from the large, physical 2D screens we use today. Some design processes will take place in virtual 3D spaces from beginning to end, with entire teams joining from their preferred work location using technology no bigger than a pair of eyeglasses. Continued hardware evolution will allow designers to flip between XR modes at will. AR will allow for enhanced in-person collaboration, while VR will allow us to change context and simulate design outcomes without switching between hardware or software.
Extended Reality—whether augmenting our daily lived experiences to allow us to work in a more familiar and connected environment, enabling us to imagine the possibilities of something new within our own home, or refocusing our consciousness to experience the absence of pain–enables us as humans to forge connections and experience the environments around us in a more informed, efficient, and empowered manner. With the additional opportunities in using Extended Reality to aid in creating more efficient product delivery methods or enhance and engage us through new means of storytelling, the opportunities seem almost boundless in what it will enable us to do next. The important thing is to always remember that this technology alone doesn’t solve anything. Only by exploring this emerging tech through the lens of human-centered design can we arrive at solutions that add true value to the people that need them.

Implementing Faster Product Development Cycles

Charles Yust

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How the emerging technology of mixed reality can be harnessed to take the cognitive load off of our increasingly complex learning, working and living environments.

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The Cognitive Impact of Mixed Reality

While it may seem like the stuff of science fiction, we’re already in the foundational world of mixed reality. Consider any of the times you’ve used a mapping service—Apple Maps, Waze, Google Maps, toggled on Street View; played a location-driven augmented reality game—Pokemon Go, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite; or used a voice UI to answer a question or complete a task—Apple Siri, Google Home, Amazon Echo, Microsoft Cortana. These instances blend our daily experiences with technology-driven enablers, allowing us to complete tasks, connect with other individuals, or be entertained in ways that expand our perception and abilities within our everyday environments. We are experiencing a future where digital, physical, and the space in-between are beginning to merge. Our understanding of what is real, what is expected, and what can help or harm us is becoming muddled in our everyday experiences. The reach of these mixed reality environments has the potential to impact us all deeply on a cognitive level in order to both foster rich and meaningful experiences and connect us with others.
The most commonly referenced mainstream mixed reality interfaces have been centered around elementary task management, gaming, and entertainment; all exciting, playful, and constructive domains for us to build toward. While these are valuable and engaging experiences, what inspires me most about mixed reality experiences is how they open the door for us to take stock of the way that we learn and educate ourselves and how we adapt our bodies and brains for the future generations to come. There’s a real opportunity to create more immersive, inclusive, and all accessible environments where individuals can better digest, learn, comprehend, complete, recall, and participate in experiences.
Before I break down the ways in which we can engage this platform, let’s get to a shared understanding of the capabilities we have to work within the mixed reality environment:
—Augmented reality (AR) enhances a real-world experience with an additional layer of (typically digital) context, effectively changing the way in which an individual perceives or interacts with this experience. For example, Pokemon Go adds characters, gaming, and artificial overlays to an otherwise familiar map interface.
—Virtual reality (VR) steeps individuals deeper into a realm of lucid immersion, where we as the participant experience an entirely artificial environment, one which we know is not real, yet our brains are fooled into believing it is, like gaming environments using Oculus, PlayStation VR, or Valve Index VR Kit.
—Mixed reality (MR) can be considered as an umbrella term encompassing the capabilities of both AR and VR, but also as an environment leveraging auxiliary methods of interaction such as haptics (the physical and sensory feedback we get through touch or vibration), and auditory experiences, like sound design and the feedback we get through hearing or spoken environments (Voice UI) that don’t require the additional content of a visual display.
Within these environments, we have the ability to design for three major use cases that could have a large impact on education, the workplace, and aging in place.
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<h6>Education</h6>
Consider the pressures and distractions that come along with learning environments these days, especially at a young age, where many students also have access to digital devices and technologies on their person. Mixed reality environments have the ability to connect students via artificial environments that allow them to learn through a multifaceted approach by enabling them with the technologies they’re already used to. <a href="https://www.astroreality.com/augmented-reality-planet-earth-model">AstroReality’s EARTH</a>, for instance, integrates digital technologies and overlays to allow students to explore, learn, and interact with science, space, and life on earth.
Classroom environments can also be chaotic to our brain’s understanding of what it is we’re trying to learn. Balancing instructor presentations with textbook readings, in-class demonstrations with classmate interjections—all of the factors can exhaust the brain and lessen the rotation of learned materials. Mixed reality environments have the ability to engage individuals more deeply through immersion, which could help to counter the cognitive burden students face in the chaos. Compiling the disparate form factors into a singular immersive environment, one that allows each student to choose the context and framing of learning they’re interested in, allows the cognitive load to remain manageable and move students towards higher levels of achievement, and dare I say, enjoyment. For true enjoyment, check out frog’s experiment with mixed reality environments at SFMOMA with the <a href="https://www.frog.co/work/sf-moma">Magritte Interactive Gallery</a>.
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<h6>Workplace</h6>
The natural segue pushes us from development into workplace performance, and understanding how cognitive burden can turn into cognitive overload. At its core, cognitive overload arises when you have a situation where you have too much information or too many tasks to learn simultaneously, which results in the learner being unable to process the information. Mixed reality environments are creating experiences where individuals can excel at the task at hand while simultaneously seeing a real reduction in cognitive overload by providing workers with the context they need in the order and at the moment they need that information. A number of mixed reality options already exist commercially, including Microsoft HoloLens, Google Glass Enterprise Edition, and Magic Leap One. This isn’t to say we’re heading into (or have the shoulder strength to bear) a Minority Report-style future where our workplace environments turn into gestural handwaving of floating components. Rather, these mixed reality environments allow workers to stay hands free by having digital devices render context and instructions via glasses in the worker’s immediate visual purview. This removes the cognitive burden of disengaging from tasks to find relevant information on how to complete the next task. It merges the focus of the digital and physical environments together. What’s important when considering how these devices enable performance is that cognitive burden and cognitive overload don’t arrive because I have to unscrew a bolt and remove a panel. What is burdensome is knowing which bolt, which panel, in what sequence, all while trying to complete a singular task at hand. This is the kind of workflow and burden that can easily be offloaded from individuals using mixed reality.
Additionally, setting up these mixed reality environments can take the cognitive load off of imagining things not yet built, or painting not just a picture but a whole reality where a prototype comes alive. At frog, we use mixed reality in pitches to bring ideas to life. Rather than making costly or time consuming models, we can actually build a prototype in VR that enables a client to understand almost exactly how the product will live and work in reality. We used this approach when designing the <a href="https://www.frog.co/work/touchtunes">Touchtunes digital jukebox.</a> Our VR model allowed investors to quickly understand the updates in a more meaningful way. If a picture is worth a thousand words—a VR simulation could be worth millions.
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<h6>Aging in Place</h6>
Finally, beyond how we learn and excel at our jobs today, mixed reality environments open the door for a new model of thinking about how we age. These environments allow us to consider different methods of rehabilitation, ones that can leverage the breakthroughs in neuroplasticity and sensory function, allowing individuals to recover faster and more effectively. Similarly, these environments also have the capability to improve cognitive function, stimulating memory and response—which could one day significantly counter the effects of Alzheimer’s and Dementia. <a href="http://medvr.ict.usc.edu/projects/bravemind/">Bravemind</a>, a clinical approach through USC, is using mixed reality exposure therapy to help assess and treat PTSD in soldiers in a controlled environment. The use of this technology platform is unique not only because it’s interactive, multisensory, and immersive, but it can also be tailored to each individual’s needs and gives the clinicians the flexibility they need to control and document patient responses. <a href="https://www.neuro-insight.com/">Neuro-Insight</a> has found that mixed reality environments drive almost double the visual attention in the brain (as opposed to non-MR tasks) and these experiences store up to 70 percent more into memory.

As designers, technologists, and makers creating the future that we will exist in as a society, we have an obligation towards the intentional execution of mixed reality interfaces. We need to build environments that don’t just integrate new ways for monetization or entertainment but take into consideration the effect these interfaces will have on the brain. How will we improve the experience within learning environments, reduce the collective cognitive burden that we face as we complete tasks throughout our day, and contribute to the longevity of life and memory function?
We humans are resilient, flexible, and capable of being molded. In mixed reality environments, we have the opportunity to improve cognition through immersion and by creating environments that reiterate and reinforce our lived experiences. With the right priority, this platform has the ability to help and not hurt our brains.

Alexis Du Mond Puchek has 15+ years of experience in User Experience, Interaction Design, Front-End Web Development and Design, and Information Architecture. She has experience working in-house with Fortune 500 companies like Visa and PayPal, as well as in advertising and consulting firms with companies like SapientRazorfish and frog. Her background in financial services, enterprise software, systemic thinking, prototyping methods, and cross-platform and responsive interfaces has enabled her to create world-class solutions for IT services, financial services, commerce, automotive spirits, airline, oil and gas, healthcare, cellular, and banking clients. Alexis is a teacher, mentor, and connector. She tries to lift people up and empower designers to produce exemplary, usable, and accessible design.

Alexis Du Mond Puchek

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