Bloom OS
AR/VR operating system branding, UX/UI and visualization assistance
Background story
It was time we were really into augmented reality shots on Dribbble; some were cool, others even cooler. Long story short, we were doing our creative stuff. Out of the blue, a guy from Sweden noticed our creatives. As it turned out, a man was holding a startup that developed augmented reality glasses.
The overall idea was good. The OS for the glasses should've been accessible for everyone, something like Android but for AR/VR devices.
So, what was needed?
The design of the user interface of the operating system itself and assets for developers... But beforehand, the OS had no name or logo, so it was decided to start with that.
Naming
The naming process was really tough. We went through a good hundred, if not more, names. before sticking with Bloom...
Moreover, the name gave birth to the first OS' gesture*—"bloom.",
the gesture for opening the main menu.
To perform bloom gesture you just need to rise an open hand in the goggles’ field of view
*At the time, Apple hadn't yet invented their finger control stuff,
so we saw it more like something from sci-fi movies, only wanted to make it more convenient.
Branding
Surprisingly, the branding part went smoothly. At the time, it wasn't even full branding, but rather just a logo, a font, and some simple stuff to have something to work with.
One of the first drafts was approved, and we simply moved on. The idea behind the logo is simple: multiple windows (yeah, the same thing Microsoft did), stylized to resemble leaves. That's it.
01
Prototyping interactions
As there are so many already tested-out and 100% working examples of operating systems (Windows, MacOS, Android, etc.), we thought the most was already done, but it turned out to be much more complicated. Mainly because of control specifics.
Interaction with all known OS's is designed to work with some kind of physical manipulator (mouse, controller, touchscreen, etc.), but in our case, we were left with our bare fingers. The designers and developers team didn't even think of implementing any controllers like Quest or Vive, and it was obvious that the new turn should go towards gesture control.
Yes, nowadays we have barely working Quest's gestures, Apple's new goggles, and a quadrillion Chinese knock-off devices, but at the moment we had to think it through from scratch.
Gestures
The first step was to define (implement, test, fail, redefine, and so on until success) a set of common gestures so we’d be able to start building interaction patterns based on those. And some time later, we’ve settled on the following list:
It might seem like a lot, but in reality, we kept adding and retracting gestures as we faced a need for brand new interaction or got rid of ones. Kind of an everlasting process, haha.
Interaction patterns
Moving on to step two—combining gestures into interactions. This process wasn't straight-forward either. Although we already knew all the gestures were implementable and were recognized by the headset, it was still a question of how well the system would recognize combinations of those and how far we could bend functionality by performing gestures in special ways.
02
Prototypes
So, Bloom's goal is to provide a device with the OS on board that could be used as (or even in place of) a work PC while also being an everyday home and, moreover, a portable outdoor companion accessory.
Ambitious? Yes. Hell, a lot of work? Yes!
Navigation
It was crucial to make navigating through the system intuitively understandable, so it was decided to use as many known interactions as possible. In the end, it turned out to feel pretty similar to navigating through any touch-screen device. But without “the screen” in a common sense.
Multi-task operations
Multitasking is our everything. At the time we started the project, most competitors could barely handle more than one task, but it was definitely not an option for Bloom. Developers promised simultaneous work on up to 10 flat or 3 volumetric apps! Yeah, that was promising.
File system
Working with files is the most basic thing an operating system should be capable of. Can you imagine any OS that has no ability to play music, sort out your latest trip photos, or play a movie? Exactly! Bloom should have been capable of all the stuff like that!
Widgets system
Widgets are one of the main features of our OS. A widget could be a part of an application or a separate application. You can anchor those to any real-world surface in your room and always find them there. Widgets could be quickly assembled and disassembled. Convenient, cool, and good.
03
Concepts and UI
The sad thing is that prototypes were never completed. At one point, the client started to insist on moving to actual designs as he needed promo materials already, both for advertisement and to start building a website. And so we moved.
The first main goal was to come up with a "Bloom menu" (something like Windows' Start)—loads of options, rejects, brainstorms, nerves, and tears. Everything as usual...
And finally we had it...
After a series of trials and errors, pretty cool and pretty shitty concepts, sweat, and blood, we finally came to the option that resonated within the client's mind. Questionable, but yet successful. We could finally move on, but the twist lurked around the corner.
After a year and a half of hard work, as prosaic as it may seem, the client ran out of money. Being himself kind of a conspiracist, he didn't want to involve any investors or crowd funding, so they decided to put the project on (everlasting) pause.
The cash that they still had left was barely enough to put together a website. Although we were ambitious enough to try to implement a couple of cool visual features, polishing and debugging those were unfortunately out of budget, so we have what we have... Check out the website here.
team:
Project Management
Dmytro PokholchenkoDesign direction
Serge SuhanovUI/UX Design
Serge Suhanov Petro Ivanchenko3D graphics
Serge Suhanov Alexey EvdokimovWEB Development
Artem Mardar
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