Assembly
UI/UX & 3D DESIGN
— is a three-dimensional interactive space made for educational institutions to take the learning experience to a whole new level.
Role
Web Designer
User Researcher
Digital Designer
Visual Identity
3D Designer
Web Designer
User Researcher
Digital Designer
Visual Identity
3D Designer
Team
Valerie E. Lianggara
Valerie E. Lianggara
Skills
User Research
Web DesignInformation Architecture
Design System
3D Modelling
User Research
Web DesignInformation Architecture
Design System
3D Modelling
Tools
Figma
Adobe Illustrator
HTML / CSS
Javascript
Blender
Figma
Adobe Illustrator
HTML / CSS
Javascript
Blender
Timeline
April - May 2021
April - May 2021
The Challenge
As a follow-up of the brief created for afterhours., this brief presents itself as a continued exploration of design as a tool in the future of education and learning experiences.
Living in such a fast paced world, we often neglect what keeps us most alive - human connection and interaction. With or without the impact of the current pandemic, the
rapid mergence of modern technology is supposed to be a solution to improve ease of communication. In this self directed brief, I want to question how potential virtual human connection and interaction can be implemented in learning experiences.
Guided by the research question: ‘How might we use the enhancement of human connection and interaction in
a digital learning setting to facilitate a collaborative experience for school communities?’, the challenge was to figure out what we can design and implement to a digital learning environment that still highlights the significance of human connection and interaction.
The Solution
In this brief, I wanted to reimagine learning experiences after being stuck in my home country due to the pandemic, limiting my social interactions with her university peers. This sparked an idea of creating a 3D virtual space where school communities get to interact as characters. Using 3D software Blender, Assembly was born, a three-dimensional interactive space made for educational institutions to take learning to a whole new level.
Whether you are attending class, group meetings, social events or simply having a chat during break time, Assembly is designed to highlight the importance of interaction within learning environments. With today's world constantly evolving and everyone situated across the globe, we aim to bring together anyone who share the same goal of learning.
*featured at Central Saint Martins Graduate Show 2021 🥳
SHOWCASE︎︎︎
USER RESEARCH
Understand our users
As a form of qualitative research, I asked some of my
friends who are studio-based learners these questions
to gain better insight on their experience as students:
![]()
From the user research insights, I focused on identifying the key pain points of these students that I could act upon. I simplified them into keywords that stood out to me, in hopes of helping me indicate such words as the main strategies and struggles that students experience that bans them from having a strong human connection.
![]()
With the data collected from the research, I decided to create a mindmap to sort out my findings and help me identify what the problem really is.
![]()
To highlight the fundamentals of my project, I created a Golden Circle diagram and a Policy Analysis Triangle diagram. This helped me map out the context, reasoning and aim for my final outcome.
![]()
I decided to identify a set of design principles I wanted to stick to for this brief, which are:
-
What do you study in school?
-
Do you normally have studio sessions as part of
your university coursework (pre-covid)?
-
As a studio-based learner, how have you adapted
to online learning?
-
What do you like/not like most about online
learning?
-
Do you think your quality of learning will increase
with in-person learning?
-
What do you miss most about in-person learning
and going to campus?
- What do you like/not like most about in-person learning
From the user research insights, I focused on identifying the key pain points of these students that I could act upon. I simplified them into keywords that stood out to me, in hopes of helping me indicate such words as the main strategies and struggles that students experience that bans them from having a strong human connection.
With the data collected from the research, I decided to create a mindmap to sort out my findings and help me identify what the problem really is.
To highlight the fundamentals of my project, I created a Golden Circle diagram and a Policy Analysis Triangle diagram. This helped me map out the context, reasoning and aim for my final outcome.
I decided to identify a set of design principles I wanted to stick to for this brief, which are:
- Accomodating - Accessible across different environment and living situations.
- Fluent - Easily integrated with other virtual
communication tools.
-
Immersive - Engages students in projects, critiques
and conversations that resembles a real-life setting
How might we...
use the enhancement of human connection and interaction in a digital learning setting to facilitate a collaborative experience for school communities?
IDEATION
Brainstorm
I started to wonder...
What if a database of online 3D models of universities/educational
institutions exist? Like Google Earth? But what if we can interact in
them? Enter an immersive virtual space where it feels like we're
in school even when we're not?
![]()
![]()
As seen in the image on the right, a video calling feature will be available within the platform. I also considered a conversation radius, which meant that users can only hear people within their radius of a certain distance. This encourages users to actually interact with others within the platform.
To frame my project, I went back to my goal and reminded myself of how I’m going to solve the problem. I tried to visualise my concept more by sketching out how I am achieving the goals I set for my self.
As seen in the image on the right, a video calling feature will be available within the platform. I also considered a conversation radius, which meant that users can only hear people within their radius of a certain distance. This encourages users to actually interact with others within the platform.
3D MODELLING
Building Exterior
3D MODELLING
Avatars
Final Avatars:
3D MODELLING
Building’s Interior
DESIGN SYSTEM
Visual Guidelines
When thinking of what to name my product, I listed out
numerous key words that related to my medium and
aim. From this, the word ‘assembly’ really stood out to
me, as I used to attend a whole school assembly every
morning in secondary school and I HATED it. Growing
up in a very strict school, they made us do push ups
whenever we were one second late to assembly - not
to mention that the assembly hall was on the 7th floor
and we were not allowed to use the lift.
![]()
In line with how I am essentially reimagining the school
and classroom setting, why not reimagine the word‘assembly’? Because I have always associated the word
with negative connotations, I wanted to give it a new
meaning for myself. By definition, assembly means a
group of people gathered together in one place for a
common purpose. It perfectly described my project, and
it sounds catchy as well.
![]()
Final Experience
REFLECTION
Key Takeaways
This project for me, was no
doubt the most challenging
project I have ever done. When
we first started this second
brief, I had zero knowledge
and skills on 3D modelling and
Blender. Now, not only do I
know how to create 3D models,
but I managed to create one of
my university.
There is SO much room for improvement. One mistake I made throughout this project was focusing too much on the technical side of things that I sometimes lost myself in it and fail to focus on the concept itself. Creating 3D models is something I have grown to love, and I for sure would want to further develop my skills in the future.
Further developments I would make is definitely solidifying the concept and identity a lot more. As mentioned earlier, I definitely got lost in the process and forgot to step back once in a while. I would ideally create a more defined and well designed user interface for my product, and also render it in a higher and better quality. Additionally, I am currently learning three.js to build Assembly, for it to be live and accesible online.
There is SO much room for improvement. One mistake I made throughout this project was focusing too much on the technical side of things that I sometimes lost myself in it and fail to focus on the concept itself. Creating 3D models is something I have grown to love, and I for sure would want to further develop my skills in the future.
Further developments I would make is definitely solidifying the concept and identity a lot more. As mentioned earlier, I definitely got lost in the process and forgot to step back once in a while. I would ideally create a more defined and well designed user interface for my product, and also render it in a higher and better quality. Additionally, I am currently learning three.js to build Assembly, for it to be live and accesible online.