Platform
SaaS
Mobile + VR
Timeline
Aug – Dec 2024
16 weeks
Team
2 UX Designers
VR/AR Designer
Sacred Roots
Connecting Native American communities
by creating an XR/VR–powered social platform.
AT A GLANCE
Our team envisioned a "what if?"
social media system.
78% of American Indian/Alaskan Native (AIAN) individuals have migrated from Native culture hubs, leading to fragmented communities & increasing elder isolation.
Utilizing resources from the National Resource Center on Native American Aging (NRCNAA), our team leveraged AI, VR, & LiDAR to enable AIAN communities to connect, share experiences, & build communities rooted in their cultures.
As Product Lead, I:
Managed our roadmap
Spearheaded prototyping/testing for interaction, UI, & XR/VR
Organized communication & distributed team responsibilities
Assembled weekly presentations to foster buy-in
Led development & maintenance of our design system
Core77
2025 Speculative Design Student Notable
56 NPS
score indicates satisfaction among user testers
5+
key features gamify storytelling & communication
VR/XR
features facilitate more ways to connect
“It is in my DNA to stay connected, to be a contribution, to remember my relatives.”
— Patty Dimitriou, Navajo Nation
© Indian Motorcycles
THE PROBLEM
Native American communities
are fragmenting.
Native culture revolves around connection, & as more Natives (78%) move off-reservation, it grows difficult to foster inter-generational communication. Why?
Native elders are the primary keepers of knowledge within communities. They share information through oral storytelling, which is difficult to emulate through most modern-day technology.
This vacuum in communication means vital cultural information is lost, leading to cultural extinction.
The loss of communication & culture also mean:
Native youth struggle to find community, & >10% turning to substance abuse.
Native elders face social isolation, increasing their risk of death by +400%.
Reconnecting Natives struggle to learn more about their culture & history.
Conversations with Natives across 5+ tribes highlighted how elders shape Native identity.
“I wish I’d learned more from grandma – I lived 900 miles away, so we rarely talked. There’s so much about my culture I have to rediscover alone.”
– Stephen, Sicangu Lakota
“Our heritage is passed down through oral tradition: storytelling. That is how I learned what it means to be Navajo: through my grandmother's stories.”
– Patty, Navajo Nation
Our team posed the question:
How might AIAN elders & communities harness technology to stay connected & steward their cultural knowledge for future generations?
THE SOLUTION
We built Sacred Roots, an accessible
social platform, to create new ways for indigenous communities to connect.
The Sacred Roots platform harnesses VR, LIDAR, & AI to bridge generation gaps. A shallow learning curve & real-time guidance make our platform easy to use, even for the less tech-savvy.
Gamified knowledge-sharing & tailored community recommendations help Natives stay rooted in the communities that mean the most – no matter the distance.
VR background © Guerrilla Games
HIGHLIGHT FEATURES
Storytelling tools gamify
cultural knowledge exchange.
Native cultures emphasize audiovisual narratives to share cultural information. Our team surveyed seniors & youth to identify priority features for users to support their communities.
Based on results, users can craft stories using simple AI & LiDAR tools, enhancing storytelling beyond traditional digital storybooks.
AI companions help users get unstuck fast.
Inspired by celebrated American animals, a friendly & conversational chatbot helps elders navigate Sacred Root’s features.
The AI recognizes when users get confused or make errors, providing real-time guidance to mitigate confusion.
VisionOS VR enables users to connect, play, & learn in immersive spaces.
With VisionOS, users with mobility issues navigate Sacred Roots' VR system through simple gestures (no confusing or costly controllers necessary).
Gamification, personalization, & limitless spaces encourage communities to play together, building cultural knowledge & problem-solving skills.
Tailored accessibility settings create comfort.
Natives are disproportionately affected by accessibility challenges like motor skills & low vision. Users can adjust their experience to meet their accessibility needs anytime across all platforms.
With Sacred Roots . . .
Native youth find connection & solace in their shared identities.
Native elders discover community & share their stories & history.
Reconnecting Natives join safe places to connect with their heritage.
Native businesses market themselves, grow, & empower their communities.
Native creators share projects to build impactful networks.
Native communities build centralized hubs & steward their own data.
. . . Natives can stay connected – stay rooted – in the communities that give them identity.
DISCOVERY
Our team surveyed 60+ indigenous community stakeholders, identifying 6 segments used to frame product roadmapping.
We learned from:
Native Parents
Native Elders
Reconnecting Natives
Non-Native Tribal Relations/Non-Natives
Based on our findings, we developed 6 user personas, each with a distinct story to framework our research, ideation, & roadmapping.
[Redacted personas] 6 personas & user journeys helped better visualize pain points & opportunities for solutions.
Our team set 3 core goals:
Design for forgiveness
Ensure systems minimize the impact of user errors.
Frame communication
Create comfortable spaces for conversations.
Build on Native culture
Leverage existing structures to meet users where they are.
IDEATION
200 ideas became 20 storyboards, & 20 storyboards became 6 features.
Guided by our key considerations, we focused on blue-sky concepts & refined our ideas through a value-feasibility matrix.
Our final prototype features included:
Story/Podcast Creator
Tutorials & Classes
LiDAR Item Scanner & Collections
AI (LLM) Companion Chatbot
VR Sandbox Game
Initial concept grouping & our value-feasibility matrix. We focused on creating & exploring high-value concepts, even those that may have been less feasible in our given timeframe.
We conducted 5 SWOT analyses to draw on
the strengths of existing products.
To ensure we built functional & flexible features, we explored current market offerings to identify how they onboarded users & scaled experiences.
This reference allowed us to design prototypes with seamless feature integrations.
A high-level overview of our sandbox game SWOT, identifying strengths, weaknesses, & how intense the learning curve is.
Xbox Kinect & VisionOS’s gesture-based interaction made VR accessible for users with limited fine motor skills.
VR & sandbox games were exciting, but we faced 2 daunting questions:
How do we make these systems accessible for those with mobility impairments?
How do we make them easy to learn?
We ultimately found that leveraging simple hand gestures, like those in Kinect or VisionOS, was the most feasible solution.
Simple gestures, like tapping & speaking, complete actions. Interfaces are accordingly designed with larger interaction tools.
© Microsoft Game Studios, © Apple
Despite focusing on accessibility, we faced hurdles with VR integration.
VR technology is still emerging, & our team acknowledged that adapting to these systems, especially for seniors, required time.
To bridge this gap, we prioritized integrating small XR features into a mobile app while developing a scaled-down VR prototype to showcase the platform's future potential.
DESIGN
We split our approach into 3 prongs to create 500 lo-fi wireframes: mobile, VR, & a
supporting ecosystem.
Social App: We ideated on Meta's Facebook & Messenger system to create a familiar yet customized experience for users.
VR Environment: VR spaces serve as a hubs for hands-on learning experiences through simple quests & puzzles.
Supporting Ecosystem: A “daisy chain” of workshops & Native businesses offering physical groups for people to be involved.
We built a Lean Product Canvas to prioritize key MVP features by defining our unique value proposition (UVP).
Our UVP centered on:
Immersive XR social experiences to foster natural connections
Structured & personalized opportunities for contribution & engagement
Autonomous, interactive AIAN data stewardship & collection
This framework also guided us in shaping Sacred Roots into a viable, revenue-generating business, profiting off of advertising & gamified in-app purchases.
Initial planning for our Lean Product Canvas
We create an accessible design system by drawing inspiration from Indigenous design
Our team developed scalable atomic components for both mobile & VR interfaces, ensuring clarity & consistency across all screens while maintaining full control over usability & visual identity.
7 core design components & associated variations.
Memory management democratized access
to VR features.
Limited access to high-end technology on reservations required us to optimize performance to reduce memory load through:
Procedural placement provides a set of if–then rules on feature placements, reducing environmental storage requirements.
Frustum culling prevents objects outside the camera’s view from rendering, reducing memory requirements.
Procedural Placement: Rather than hand-placing features, developers describe placement with rules. © Stanislaw Malc
Frustum Culling: Only items within the camera's view (blue cone) are rendered.
© Guerrilla Games
VALIDATION
We identified & solved accessibility issues through 7 task completion tests.
Testing allowed us to identify & refine:
Key visual accessibility improvements
Areas requiring clearer initial guidance & tutorials
Optic feedback cues needing greater clarity
Dovetail allowed us to quickly document & share insights from our tests to adjust.
HANDOFF
We aren't quite finished with Sacred Roots.
Our final proposal culminated in a short workshop held in December 2024, where our products received enthusiastic approval.
We submitted a copy of our project to tribal leaders at the Lummi Nation in Washington state; working directly alongside our Native peers ensures that culture is embedded in every decision.
“As long as you remember where you came from, you will always not only have a sense of belonging, but of purpose.”
— Patty Dimitriou, Navajo Nation
© Indian Motorcycles
FINAL THOUGHTS
We built a future rooted in the past.
We are in danger of a less unique America. Sacred Roots is more than a product — it’s a commitment to honoring the traditions of those who came before us & empowering those who will advance their legacy.
With the global spotlight of the Core77 awards & support from our friends at the Lummi Nation, our team continues designing a community to preserve Native cultures for the youth of tomorrow.
My Takeaways:
Think
BIG!
Blue-sky concepts can help you make products for all user segments
Prioritize
what matters.
You can’t do everything– focus on the solutions making the most impact
Build tools
for creation.
Giving users a platform to make & exchange ideas builds engagement
OTHER PROJECTS
© 2025
Currently
Leading UX Research @Aperio Insights. Seeking Product Design & UX(R) roles.
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