Douglas Hineline - UX Portfolio

Vivaty.com

Launch in March 2008

There has been an explosion in the number of online virtual worlds in past five years. Increases in performance from out of the box machines and the proliferation of broadband connectivity have allowed for the exploration of 3d applications as a mass market vehicle for the first time. The major players in the industry such as Second Life have been around for some time but have one major drawback... They are stand alone applications. They lack the ability to be truly integrated with traditional 2d web apps and resources and are thus limited in their reach and scope.

Enter Vivaty.com, one of the first fully functioning browser based 3d social applications. With the development of the Vivaty Player, a new door was opened for building a 3d application that can appear inline with all other types of web content.

As a design project, Vivaty represented a serious challenge in both design and development. 3d applications are by nature very complex, and building an interface for young casual users without limiting creativity and feature offerings has been an ongoing challenge. The application includes all of the challenges of designing a chat client, a social network, a video game, a fashion editor and a shopping site in one big product. The interface and supporting layouts also have to appear in a wide range of frames, pages and canvas area, requiring the design to be completely scalable both in dimensions and features. Vivaty is available on AIM, Facebook and as a standalone channel at Indy.com.

I am the only UX designer and front-end developer for Vivaty and have been involved in every project involving any kind of interaction or interface since January of 2008. The interface and interaction model of Vivaty still has many areas that need improvement, but when considering how far the experience has come in 18 months, I can't help but smile.

For a more detailed look at some of the design challenges faced in developing Vivaty, see the UX Case Studies section for individual project descriptions.

Acknowledgments

Vivaty is often more of a think tank than just a traditional startup. I've been blessed with excellent mentors including Keith McCurdy, Jay Weber, Mark Hull, Len Frenkel and Tony Parisi.