Ziyin Zhang

VR Developer | Interaction Designer | UX Engineer

VR Game Development

LOAM

Amebous Labs - indie VR studio

Inspired by the popular quarantine game Animal Crossing, Loam is designed for the rapidly-growing population of gamers new to video games. I joined the project after the ideation and prototyping stage of production. I mainly focused on refining the UX of the VR gameplay and writing production code for the final product.

Starting with early prototypes of the gardening mechanics, I rewrote the backend in order to support the freeform nature of a simulation game. The process involved

refactoring the core systems based on data-oriented design principles (as oppose to traditional OOP) by separating the data from its representation;
abstracting the VR interactions into reusable code that can be assigned to any interactable object.

Released in Jan. 2022 on Oculus App Labs
Supports Oculus (Meta) Quest 1 & 2

Loamgame.com

Gardening simulation & decoration game

Critters show up near their favorite plants

Storing and manipulating objects

VR Protyping

CampusVR

IMAGINE Lab, Georgia Tech College of Design

As a Graduate Research Assistant, I am working on redesigning and implementing the user experience in CampusVR. It is a collection of campus planning tools as well as a virtual gallery to showcase the latest work of CSPAV (Center for Spatial Planning Analytics and Visualization) at Georgia Tech.

I prototyped several methods to interact with a 3D campus map, including holograms, 3D UI, and searching via a drum keybaord.

I also experimented with seamlessly changing the interaction mode: the default laser pointer automatically turns into a small "mallet" when the user intends to interact with tiny targets on the map.

VR User Experience Design
Rapid prototyping in Unity
HTC Vive Pro headset and controllers
Custom VR gloves powered by HTC Vive Trackers

The mallet provides precise control when interacting with the tiny buildings on the 3D campus map and the 3D UI

VR Game User Experience

At Moxie, I worked on Stay Alive Live, a game that aims to fill the gap of VR game in Twitch streaming designed back in 2016. It encourages audience engagement by allowing the audience to vote in Twitch chat and directly influence the gameplay.

My takaways in VR user experience design:

Applying Usability Heuristics in VR
Designing VR User Interface:
a summary of effective VR user interfaces

VR Training

Pharmaceutical Lab Training

I worked as a VR Developer at Foundry 45 which specialized in VR training development. Some of the VR training products I've worked on can be found here: Virtuosi®. Along with development, I designed and implemented a tool inventory system for a manufacturing VR training application through iterative design using sketches and high-fidelity prototypes. (Email for work samples)

VR Barista Training

During my internship at Moxie, I worked on improving the user experience of VR barista training. We explored the user interface design of order processing and step-by-step instructions.

VR User Interface Design
User Experience Engineer

Brain-Computer Interaction Experience

ZenWave

I used the Muse Headband to develop an experience that showcases the potential of Brain-Computer Interface.

This demo guides users through a series of actions to control the visuals on the wall through their brainwaves. Then they meditate for one minute using the visuals and audio cues. The visualization of their brainwave during the meditation will be shown on the TV.

Brain-Computer Interface
Ineraction Design
User Experience Engineer

Demo Video Read More on GitHub

This project was showcased to 50+ participants during Moxie All Access 2018

Designing of VR Gesture Interface

Master's Research Project

Virtual Reality (VR) is a platform that quickly became popular in the past few years, with hundreds of VR games, VR experiences, 360° videos releasing each year. However, the modes of interaction does not catch up. The lack of an effective, standardized interface is one of the problems of this platform.

Therefore, I am proposing a VR Gesture Interface based upon Shneiderman's HCI framework on user interface design.

My project is a VR game with gesture control as its core game mechanism. The player can interact with the virtual environment through the help of a virtual companion. Using gestures to communicate and command actions, the player will control the companion to do certain tasks.

Human Computer Interaction
VR User Interface Design

Project Documentation

Inspirations:

The Unspoken

Moss

Physical Prototyping

GBAM Music Wristband

GBAM (Gesture-Based Audio Mixing) wristband allows DJs and performers to mix and create music live on stage. We prototyped and implemented this using Arduino and accelerometer sensor.

A gesture interface of 16 different gestures was defined and implemented.

Wearable Technology
Interaction Design
Software Engineer

GBAM prototype

Interaction Design

Music Glove

I designed a wearable instrument in the form of a glove. It allows users to explore their environment in a whole new way and create music using their hands.

User Experience Design
User Interface Design
Wearable Technology

Front-end Web Development

IMPRINT

I worked in a team of 4 to build this interactive web app, which allows community associations and members to sign up for events and host new events.