Providence
2023
Product Design (UX/UI), Front-end Development
Collaborators: 4-person interdisciplinary team (design + development)
Using: Figma, JavaScript, A-Frame, WebAR (8th Wall)
About
Over a 5-month period, I worked on a small interdisciplinary team
to design and develop a web-based augmented reality (AR)
application for Providence Health, a large healthcare system
exploring new models for training and patient education.
The project was part of a broader initiative—supported by Intel
and Evercoast—explore how volumetric video and AR could improve
remote learning, workforce training, and patient outcomes. Our
team developed an early-stage prototype to validate how AR-based
interactions could make physical therapy exercises and training
scenarios more understandable, engaging, and accessible across
devices.
Problem & Context
Providence was exploring alternatives to traditional training and patient education methods, which often relied on static content or standard video. These formats made it difficult for users to fully understand spatial movement, retain information, and confidently apply what they learned.
This challenge became more urgent during COVID-19, when in-person training and care were limited. Providence needed a way to deliver training that was:
• Accessible remotely across a distributed workforce and patient base
• Engaging enough to improve retention and comprehension
• Scalable across multiple hospitals and user groups
At the same time, emerging AR and volumetric video technologies introduced new UX challenges:
• Users needed to understand how to place and interact with content in physical space
• Interfaces had to remain usable across mobile and non-AR contexts
• Interaction patterns had to feel intuitive despite being unfamiliar to most users
Project Goals:
• Enable users to better understand and replicate physical movements through spatial, immersive content
• Ensure accessibility across devices, including non-AR fallbacks
• Design intuitive interaction patterns for placing and viewing AR-based volumetric video
• Support both patient use (at-home learning) and internal staff training scenarios
• Contribute to a scalable model for distributing immersive training content
• Reduce reliance on costly third-party hosting solutions
My Role
• Led UX/UI design for the application, including wireframes, interaction design, and high-fidelity prototypes
• Designed a reusable component system aligned with Providence’s brand guidelines
• Collaborated closely with developers through pair programming to implement interactive featuresTranslated visual assets into a modular UI system aligned with content structure
• Designed interaction patterns(buttons, hover states, loading animations) to support usability and feedback
• Built key interface components, including custom video controls and responsive behaviors for AR content
• Contributed to translating experimental AR interactions into usable interface patterns
Constraints
• Designing for an emerging interaction model (WebAR) with limited established UX patterns
• Technical limitations around rendering, scaling, and performance of volumetric video
• Need to support both AR-enabled and standard device experiences
• Aligning with enterprise-level brand and accessibility expectations
• Working within a prototype scope while contributing to a larger, evolving product ecosystem
Design Decisions
Simplifying AR interaction for first-time users
The interface was designed to help users understand how to place and interact with AR content in their physical space—an unfamiliar interaction model for most users. To reduce friction, we introduced lightweight onboarding tutorials with visual cues (e.g. pinch, rotate gestures) alongside simplified interaction patterns.
This introduced a tradeoff between providing guidance and maintaining a streamlined interface. To balance this, onboarding was kept brief and contextual, allowing users to quickly learn interactions without interrupting the experience.
Ensuring usability beyond AR-enabled environments
Because not all users would access the experience in AR, the interface was designed to function across standard web and mobile contexts. This required designing interaction patterns that could translate between spatial and non-spatial environments without losing clarity or functionality.
Designing video controls for spatial interaction
Standard video controls were adapted for an AR environment, where content exists in 3D space rather than a fixed screen. Controls needed to remain legible and accessible while not interfering with the AR content, which could move or be positioned behind interface elements.
Balancing usability with immersion required simplifying controls while maintaining core functionality (play, pause, mute, scrubbing). UI placement and layering were carefully considered to ensure controls remained visible without obstructing the experience.
Time-based controls
Users needed precise control over time-based exercise demonstrations to revisit and practice specific movements. The interface supports scrubbing, skipping forward/backward, and replaying segments within volumetric video.
Designing these controls in a 3D environment required adapting familiar interaction patterns while maintaining responsiveness and clarity. Time-synced closed captions were integrated to support accessibility and reinforce verbal instruction.
Impact & Results
The prototype demonstrated the viability of AR-based training as part of Providence’s broader learning and development strategy, validating AR as a scalable model for both patient education and workforce training. It contributed to replacing reliance on external platforms with a more scalable, cost-effective infrastructure and supported continued investment in immersive training tools.
Feedback from Providence staff indicated that immersive, spatial experiences improved engagement, comprehension, and confidence compared to traditional formats. The project contributed to ongoing efforts to expand AR-based training across workforce development and patient care.
The work was featured in Intel case studies and industry publications, highlighting its role in advancing immersive learning in healthcare.
Here is a link to launch the experience.
Press
Providence Delivers Immersive Learning with ARIntel, 2024
Intel Technology is Helping Providence Shape the Future of Healthcare
Intel, 2022
How Augmented Reality and Immersive Technologies Can Improve Patient Outcomes
MarketScale, 2023
