The Emotion Mirror
The Emotion Mirror project focuses on user introspection by providing a 3D environment to model their emotions. The team’s goal is to create a database of models to be analyzed and compared to find emotional trends. This index can help both participants and researchers understand emotional patterns through visual representation and explore ways which people can further connect with their emotions.
Scope: UX/3D Internship
Role: UI/UX design, UX research, 3D modelling/animation
Duration: 2022-present
Tools: Adobe XD, Figma, Photoshop, Maya 3D, Illustrator, Unity
At The Emotion Mirror, our team noticed an issue. There are many people who are not able to express their emotions in a way which can be interpreted by others. This can be from a cultural perspective, where some cultures describe the feelings of emotions in ways which are not understood by other. As well as from a medical perspective, where the feelings of physical or emotional pain, joy, or neutrality cannot be properly expressed in words to a healthcare practitioner.
Ideas for Discussion
We have analyzed different discussion topics to help understand the pain points associated with emotional analysis:
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How can we translate emotions and feelings to a universally recognized medium?
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How can we showcase emotions non-verbally?
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How can we bridge the divide between patients and healthcare practitioners?
I joined The Emotion Mirror team about a year after its inception. Much of the initial user research was conducted by the project lead with a psychology background. But there was no UX related research previously done. To gain an understanding of the research area, I reconducted some studies to find what pain points were currently observed in the Emotion Mirror.
Communication-Related Pain Points
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Verbal communication is not an appropriate medium for everyone
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Not all cultures describe feelings, emotions, and physical ailments with the same vocabulary
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Language barriers may need to be breached to effectively communicate
User Persona and Journey Map
Initial Concepts and Ideas
The initial concept used asset guidelines that already existed in the project. These assets were used to create a layout for the project refactoring. This way the team could see what assets we wanted to keep and discard, or features we would like to implement in the future. This stage of the design would be used for the study conducted by the team leader for his masters thesis, so functionality mattered more than aesthetics. The aesthetic modules would be later implemented for the commercial product. Some new concepts were still introduced in for the mobile application so that the software would be more optimized for a mobile device than the current web application which catered to a keyboard and mouse over touch inputs.
Testing and Analysis
The Emotion Mirror application and web-application refactored designs were tested at the 2022 Grey Cup Digital Zone in Regina, Saskatchewan, where participants engaged in think aloud activities, surveys, and interviews, time-dependent. This was the first usability testing session as a commercial product rather than for psychological study. We used the opportunity to do A/B testing on some of our ideas, such as joystick controls versus directional buttons, light versus dark colour schemes, and the colour picker style. This helped inform the decisions the team would make with the application going forwards. But, many glaring issues were also discovered by the team both functionally and aesthetically which needed to be addressed, which changed the direction of our game mechanics and design entirely.
The most important issues to be addressed as well as design choices made through A/B are as follows:
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Modernize the UI and button design
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Use a light mode colour scheme
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Remove the button inputs in favour of the colour wheel
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Use a single contextual joystick instead of buttons or a 2 joystick design
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For mobile, add more multi-touch gestures as seen in common drawing applications
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Add a tutorial instead of a hidden help menu
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Allow preferences to be accessed easier
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Remove the pre and post surveys for the mobile application
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Allow for body parts to be centered on the screen by tapping or clicking to limit the need for zooming in and out
Launch and Conclusion
As The Emotion Mirror is an ongoing project, the final design is not available. Currently, there are mid-fi prototypes for the new design schema. But It is still being tweaked and will undergo another round of usability testing before its launch. As the application is built on the Unity platform, there are also concerns about the ongoing changes to the pricing system that are being considered. With a switch to a new platform, designs will have to be considered again, and more changes will be inevitable as the team learn new software.
However, the current Mid-Fi prototypes are available, as well as beta versions of the mobile and web applications:
The Emotion Mirror
