Fundamentals
Fundamentals is the onboarding app for Magic Leap’s AR headset. It teaches first-time users how to use the controller and hand gestures through short, hands-on lessons, so they can interact with AR content with confidence.
Over a six-month project in 2024–25, I set the visual direction: color, the spatial UI, the geometry used throughout the lessons, and a restyle of the existing 3D controller and hand models. I worked with a UX designer on the full flow.
Visual Design
Experience Design
3D Design
Motion Design
User Interface Design
Design Manager | Jing Li
Visual / 3D / Motion Designer | Namh Kim
UX Designer | Jesse Escobedo
Unity Prototyper | Mike Pinkin, Kit MacAllister, Kurt Hollowell
Three modules
The main menu holds three modules: an introduction to AR, hand gestures, and the controller. Each tile shows whether its module is finished or still in progress.
Lessons
Every lesson follows the same pattern: a 3D demonstration, one line of instruction, and something to try. Steps are short and numbered, and the panel stays small and sits below the demonstration.
Learning the controller
The controller lessons cover selecting, scrolling with the trigger and the trackpad, moving objects, and the home and capture buttons. I restyled the existing controller model as a translucent form, with blue marking the button or surface in use.
Learning hand gestures
The hand gesture lessons cover pinching, scrolling, pulling a line into a shape, drawing, and placing objects on a surface. The hands get the same treatment as the controller: a soft white model with blue on the fingertips doing the work.
Basic geometry
The experience is built on three base shapes: a sphere, a pyramid and a cube. They give first-time users something simple to grab, push and change while they get used to AR, and they respond to every interaction. I built the shapes used throughout the app.
Demo at Augmented World Expo (AWE) 2024
Fundamentals was shown live at AWE 2024 as part of Magic Leap’s demo. Visitors tried the onboarding flow first-hand, learning to use the controller and hand gestures through the headset. The response was very positive.