field: redesigning the universal interface layer

field: redesigning the universal interface layer

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In 2024, I designed an ML-driven interface that transforms media fragments into actionable project workflows.

ROLE:

Lead Product Designer (UI/UX, Visual Systems, Interaction Design)

ROLE:

Lead Product Designer

(UI/UX, Visual Systems, Interaction Design)

ROLE:

Lead Product Designer

(UI/UX, Visual Systems, Interaction Design)

TOOLS:

Sketch

SwiftUI

Freeform

CORE INNOVATION:


STACKS are open-ended workspaces for long creative dialogues between users and AI models.


CASCADES are workflows of AI Agents leveraging iOS device actions.

KEY QUESTION: "What happens to human interface design when AI enables devices to fluently read and write all kinds of media? What would a universal language look like?"

ANSWER: If AI can agnostically understand media types and data formats, it's free to see media the way you see it.

PROBLEMS AND CONTEXT

USER RESEARCH

USER RESEARCH

OUR TARGET was the creative practitioner: designers, developers, and directors who execute real-world projects.


CORE PAIN POINTS included a gap between technical products and creative catalysts.

CREATIVE TOOLS LACK OS INTEGRATION


"I wish my creative projects could tacitly react to my files, conversations, and personal context."

AI AGENTS HAMPER CREATIVITY


"I don't need AI to chat with me, much less to generate content. I wish it could pop up when it's genuinely useful, and hide away when it's not."

KEY INSIGHT: Minimal communication and ideation apps like Freeform and Messages remain ideal for creative practice. AI integration should subtly modify their design.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

NOTION allows flexibility through modular workflows that adapt to disciplinary needs.


FIGMA AND MIRO enable collaboration and brainstorming across teams.


RABBIT provided Large Action Model to automate interaction with web products and services.


THE GAP:


No product addresses ideation, execution, and lifelong creative practice with OS integration and the use of cutting-edge Intelligence services.

DESIGN PROCESS

  • HOLOGRAPHIC GLASS: I built the material catalog for Field by developing Apple’s recent refresh of its VisionOS visual style. I started with airy, translucent, but material UI elements, and activated them with a pop.

  • STACK VISUAL ENGINE: Stacks are special because, under the hood, they represent an on-device intelligent understanding of your project context. An intuitive back-and-forth between user and device tweaks and develops this shared understanding.

  • UNIVERSALITY OF FORMAT: A vocabulary was developed that preserves intuitive differences between users' files while making their essential similarities obvious.

  • STACK LAYOUT: Prototyped forms of 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional composition before settling on a linear, conversational style: media elements are nudged together and linked by natural-language "syntax."

ITERATION

  • LEFT: Holographic elements and their placement in UI space. RIGHT: Abstract problems for Cascades to solve.

  • ELEMENT SYSTEM: Aside from the vertical dimension, the only movement for media elements is zoom level. We developed 1x1, 2x1 and 2x2 modules for systematic layout and fit. Iterations of material effects lifted them from the screen without departing iOS flatness.

  • ITERATIONS of the audio element system show how Apple's Universal Link visual style is first expanded, then pared back to form a subtly new vocabulary. User testing showed an improvement of over 30% in user preferences between the first and final iteration.

  • BALANCING THE VOCABULARY to accommodate intuitive reading, granularity, and universailty. Consistent A/B testing helped maximize the rates of recognition of element types and interaction patterns.

SOLUTION AND IMPACT

CORE OUTPUT

APP PROTOTYPE with wireframe and interactions for Stacks and Cascades.


VISUAL SYSTEM including modular elements, guidelines, and motion rules.

SYSTEM DIAGRAMS connecting stack behavior to the visual interface and interpreting stacks into workflows.

IMPACT

FIELD is currently in technical production. We are prototyping the backend and tuning specialized use cases, while awaiting developments in major device and OS paradigms.


MOON SERIES features further standalone apps that develop the universal interface layer.


REDESIGNING THE UNIVERSAL INTERFACE LAYER: Thesis and Symposium presentation at the Royal College of Art, surveying trends in design and human interfaces.