Project: The Rift
Product Description: The Rift is a physical entertainment venue where pairs of explorers navigate an immersive, maze-like space while using a custom AR app to unlock a layered, game-like adventure. It's a cyber-physical experience — the app and the physical environment only work together, which made the product design challenge genuinely unusual and complex.
My Role: Product Lead & UX Designer in a lean startup environment. I owned the product strategy, user research, design system, and marketing funnel — while staying hands-on in Unity with our dev team to ship the actual experience.
Team: 2 developers, Product Owner, Project Manager, Site Ops coordinators, 2 content creators/designers.
The Problem
How do you design an experience that works physically and digitally at the same time — where the app has to know where you are, what you've done, and what happens next — for users who range from hardcore gamers to people on a casual date night who've never touched AR?
Target Audience
Couples looking for a memorable night out, and curious explorers who want something more than a movie or dinner — gamers and non-gamers alike.
What I Actually Did
Discovery & Research:
Started with market research and extensive qualitative research to understand who our users were and what they actually wanted from an experience like this. Ran brainstorming sessions with stakeholders, designed surveys and interviews for potential users, and used those insights to make early product decisions about scope and feature prioritization — cutting ideas that were interesting but not core to the experience.
Started with market research and extensive qualitative research to understand who our users were and what they actually wanted from an experience like this. Ran brainstorming sessions with stakeholders, designed surveys and interviews for potential users, and used those insights to make early product decisions about scope and feature prioritization — cutting ideas that were interesting but not core to the experience.
Prototyping:
Built low-fidelity wireframes and interactive prototypes in Figma, tested physical layouts with paper and cardboard, and used Mural for collaborative team sessions. Iterated fast based on stakeholder feedback before anything went to development.
Testing and iteration:
Ran usability testing with real users throughout, not just at the end. Developed customer journey maps and personas to keep the team aligned on who we were building for. Refined the UI and overall experience continuously based on what we observed — not just what users said.
Built low-fidelity wireframes and interactive prototypes in Figma, tested physical layouts with paper and cardboard, and used Mural for collaborative team sessions. Iterated fast based on stakeholder feedback before anything went to development.
Testing and iteration:
Ran usability testing with real users throughout, not just at the end. Developed customer journey maps and personas to keep the team aligned on who we were building for. Refined the UI and overall experience continuously based on what we observed — not just what users said.
MVP Launch:
Shipped an MVP to a limited audience, monitored user behavior through analytics, and used what we learned to prioritize the next round of development. The goal was always to learn fast, not to launch perfect.
Scaling the Experience:
Grew The Rift from a single experience to four distinct adventure products within the app. Built a WebAR experience using 8th Wall as a marketing hook — letting potential customers get a taste of the AR before ever walking through the door.
Shipped an MVP to a limited audience, monitored user behavior through analytics, and used what we learned to prioritize the next round of development. The goal was always to learn fast, not to launch perfect.
Scaling the Experience:
Grew The Rift from a single experience to four distinct adventure products within the app. Built a WebAR experience using 8th Wall as a marketing hook — letting potential customers get a taste of the AR before ever walking through the door.
Development Collaboration:
Worked directly with developers in Unity, creating user flows, storyboards, and UI assets, and staying involved on the front end to make sure the style guide was followed and the physical-to-digital handoff felt seamless. This wasn't a hand-off relationship — I was in the room and in the files.
Marketing & Funnel:
Built and managed the marketing funnel end to end — websites, landing pages, digital ad campaigns, posters, and analytics setup. Tracked user behavior from first click to purchase and used that data to improve conversion.
Worked directly with developers in Unity, creating user flows, storyboards, and UI assets, and staying involved on the front end to make sure the style guide was followed and the physical-to-digital handoff felt seamless. This wasn't a hand-off relationship — I was in the room and in the files.
Marketing & Funnel:
Built and managed the marketing funnel end to end — websites, landing pages, digital ad campaigns, posters, and analytics setup. Tracked user behavior from first click to purchase and used that data to improve conversion.
User Testing and Research:
Conducted regular user testing sessions and field studies
Developed customer journeys and personas to better understand user needs
Interacted with customers weekly to gather insights
Conducted regular user testing sessions and field studies
Developed customer journeys and personas to better understand user needs
Interacted with customers weekly to gather insights
Results:
• Launched 4 unique adventure experiences plus a full WebAR marketing product
• Surpassed monthly sales goals, hitting $2K+ in a single month
• Strong NPS scores and measurable returning customer rate
• Continuous iteration loop from user feedback to shipped improvement
What I Learned: The hardest part wasn't the design — it was making product decisions with incomplete information in real time. When you're building something that's never existed before, you can't look at a competitor to validate your choices. You have to stay close to your users, move fast, and be willing to be wrong. I got comfortable with that here.
What's Next: Continuing to expand The Rift's story experiences, deepen the AR capabilities, and use WebAR to grow top-of-funnel awareness — with AI-assisted development now accelerating what a small team can ship.
• Launched 4 unique adventure experiences plus a full WebAR marketing product
• Surpassed monthly sales goals, hitting $2K+ in a single month
• Strong NPS scores and measurable returning customer rate
• Continuous iteration loop from user feedback to shipped improvement
What I Learned: The hardest part wasn't the design — it was making product decisions with incomplete information in real time. When you're building something that's never existed before, you can't look at a competitor to validate your choices. You have to stay close to your users, move fast, and be willing to be wrong. I got comfortable with that here.
What's Next: Continuing to expand The Rift's story experiences, deepen the AR capabilities, and use WebAR to grow top-of-funnel awareness — with AI-assisted development now accelerating what a small team can ship.
