NEURODIVERGENCE & DIVERSITY

Support neurodivergence, especially those with ADHD, in achieving goals & navigating life while fostering diversity via raising awareness and empowering local, independent, & Black-owned businesses.

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Inspiration

Inspired by Snap's Diversity Annual Report at Dev Day, we focused on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), a value important to both Snap and our team. Our team's personal experiences with neurodiversity, including dyslexia and potential ADHD, as well as a passion for supporting diverse communities, informed our project.

Slide Presentation: Link to Presentation

NEURODIVERGENCE LENS (01)

ADHD Explanation: Link to Video

What it Does

We designed two lenses to assist neurodivergent individuals in improving focus and managing daily tasks:

Task Prioritisation

  • Users create a prioritised list of tasks with time durations.
  • The lens overlays the task list on their workstation (e.g., computer or book) via AR, which can be repositioned.
  • Tasks can be started one at a time, with a progress bar showing completion status.
  • Users can mark tasks as complete, adjust durations, or move to the next task if they finish early.
  • A Next Break feature reminds users to take breaks after working continuously for a set time, offering quick options like meditation or exercises.
  • If users wander away from their workstation (more than 1.5 meters), the lens prompts them to return and rewards them with a fun sound upon resuming work.

Focus & Encouragement

  • Provides gentle nudges to refocus, gamifies task completion, and fosters consistent productivity habits.

How We Built It

  • Snap UI Elements & Shader Materials: We animated progress bars and created task-tracking features.
  • Generative AI: Used to produce 3D emojis and audio assets.
  • Spatial Anchors & Spectacles Tracking: Enabled AR overlays to align with the user’s workspace and track their movement to calculate distance from the workstation.

Challenges We Faced

  • Learning Curve: None of us had prior experience with Lens Studio, so the process involved a steep learning curve.
  • Hardware Pairing Issues: We struggled to pair Spectacles with Lens Studio due to location-specific WiFi issues (though it worked fine at home).
  • UI Challenges: Built-in UI behaviors were limited, making features like scrollable lists or task reordering time-consuming to implement.

Demo Link: Watch the Demo

Get To Know Us Lens (02)

What it does

At Snapchat, the focus is on life, not likes, as reflected in the slogan "less likes, more life." The lens I've developed aims to embody this idea by helping users explore, reconnect, and discover their local communities and hidden gems.This lens achieves this by identifying local businesses within a 1.5-mile radius and generating a soundscape that becomes louder as users approach these businesses. To avoid an overwhelming mix of sounds, the lens highlights the three nearest businesses, allowing users to follow the sound and discover new local gems.

_ In London, local business sales have experienced a decline, with the number of businesses decreasing by 67,000 between 2020 and 2024. This downturn has led to a reduction in community character and individuality. Additionally, many Londoners are not fully aware of the amenities within a five-minute walk of their homes, indicating a disconnect from their immediate surroundings. By encouraging exploration through an auditory and visual lens experience, this project not only supports small businesses but also inspires users to step out, connect with their environment, and rediscover the joy of local discovery. _

Initially, this lens was designed to highlight Black-owned businesses nearby to support them. However, it has since expanded to support all local independent businesses. This expansion stems from the realization that local business sales are declining, which in turn diminishes community character and individuality. The lens also incorporates subtle gamification to enhance engagement. For example, as users approach a highlighted business, they unlock brief stories or facts about it, rewarding curiosity and exploration. These stories can include insights into the business's history, the owner’s journey, or unique offerings—fostering a deeper connection between the individual and the community.

How we built it

We employed three Design Processes to carry out the task:

  1. Unlocking the Opportunity A Data-led approach towards introspection, self-reflection and opportunity definition. We First did research into local communities, GPS Api's and Maps, Local business reports and areas of our own interests. This ensured ideation was validated, concerns had actionable (albeit ambitious direction) and we were able to develop solutions bespoke to Spectacles - A device made to augment the OUTSIDE world.
  2. Back-end Development With support from Mentors and Snap developers, we were able to identify what was currently missing in the Spectacles framework and create a targeted approach to not only carry out our vision, but also further push the development of the Spectacles platform by charting a way to connect google maps API to Spectacles to identify, locate and map the distance of local businesses and stores. Imagine what others can now build with more skills and time.
  3. Interaction Design While this idea has a heavy back-end, the icing on the cake is the FEEL of it. This aspect of the project answered two key questions: How do we make utility and client-facing business agendas fun? How might we create an experience that truly encapsulates the FEELING of discovering a new store or secret gem? We did this by creating an (showcase) experience where you can hear gems from the store owners/brand about their businesses when in proximity, and using spatial audio and sound design, hear the audio identity of the store as you get closer to it.

Challenges we ran into

Getting the Fetch API with Google Maps Nearby Searvh to work with Spectacles so that you could get the distance to businesses relative to you in a 1-mile radius, which when calculated is roughly 25-30mins of walking dependent on your physical traits and correlates directly to the battery life of the Spectacles when launching this experience - which we tested on Day 2.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Making our fist Lens is a major achievement is such a short amount of time with so little experience and knowledge of the platform.

What we learned

We learned a lot about Lens Studio works, the code structure and principles of the system and OS. giving us a firm grounding on what types of experiences and lens we could build in the future. Spatial Audio integration on Spectacles, advanced scripting and Linking of APIs to lenses and the friends we made along the way!

What's next for Neurodivergence & Diversity

There is a lot of un-implemented functionality ( settings menus, on-boarding, 'take a break' flow ) so we'd love to build that out and do more user testing. We have also made a 'Go To Market' Strategy in the deck we presented. Get To Know Us: For this Spectacles Lens we propose a new social campaign made to get people's businesses listing "Black-Owned Business" and others in the SEO to then be feature in the experience to drive community engagement in a way unique to the Snap Spectacles. We also need to link the Back-End to the Front-End in a more creative and smoother way.

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