PublicLens
Understanding space, together.
Type
Independent
Role
Experience Design
AR Concept
Branding
Prototyping
Tools
Figma
After Effects
Unity
Timeline
Aug 2025 - Oct 2025
HMW increase community engagement and empower people to take action in order to foster a stronger sense of belonging?
The Problem
Neighborhood space is ambiguous, and collective signals are invisible - leading to hesitation and low participation
The Solution
A visual layer for community awareness - makes collective activity visible in space, turns ambiguity into shared understanding and action.
Core Experiences
Interpret Space - Discover Community
Engagement build-up, contribute, fix issues through camera capture of sight.
Visible support - Funding
Community newsletter becomes location-based.
Annotate & Report Issue
Engagement build-up, contribute, fix issues through camera capture of sight.
Future Business Model
Second Party Integration
People unlock more stickers as they use more.
Location / Context Based Ads
Relevant local partners surface when recurring public activities are identified.
Business Value Exchange
Allows residents to report issues and HOAs to get inspiration on how to fix their communities.
Background Research
A State of Public Space Survey in 2025 gathered responses from over 700 individuals across 57 countries and 48 U.S. states, with 76% of responses from North America.
Interview FIndings
I conducted interviews with 20 people and categorized their concerns into the following insights:
People Infer Publicness Through Behavior
Unclear Responsibility
Hesitation Is Driven by Social Risk
Collective Understanding Increases Confidence to Engage
User Test & Iteration
AR Map Layer for Visible Collective Signal
Make collective engagement visible through AR sticker aggregation.
Before
After
Insights
Because the problem is spatial, a map abstracts the physical presence away.
AR keeps the interpretation anchored to the physical environment.
“Interpret” & “Annotate” in the Same Hierarchy
By placing “Interpret” and “Annotate” both in the primary hierarchy, this lowers the psychological barrier of reporting.
Before
After
Insights
Users don’t want to escalate immediately to formal reporting.
If spatial annotation is the core goal, asking for photo uploads brings users back to the traditional reporting logic.
Business Layer Introduced
Reveals opportunities for contextual value exchange between users and businesses.
Before
After
Insights
Very convenient for first-timers or users with limited experience, quickly helping them discover what they need for event preparation.