The ovulation cycle is one of the body's basic processes, but the way it is taught makes it hard to remember. Biology lessons show it as static diagrams at a microscopic scale, with nothing to relate it to.
Without a way to experience the cycle, ideally with your own body, the knowledge rarely sticks. We wanted to see whether space and movement could change that.
The Ovulation Cycle Experiment is an AR experience for Apple Vision Pro, made for secondary school students. Based on the classic hormone-cycle chart, it covers the three phases of the cycle (follicular, ovulation, luteal) and the four hormones that drive them: FSH, LH, estrogen and progesterone.
Students pick up the hormones and drag them through the room, walk around the egg cell and hear each phase explained as it happens. A panel beside them keeps the curves from the textbook chart in view, so they can compare the room with the diagram they know.
We avoided the look of a biology textbook. The egg cell became an abstract object you want to walk around, built from layers of materials that each carry a meaning.
The outer cage stands for how long the ovulation cycle has been suppressed and kept invisible in society. The pearlescent nucleus marks the most precious, generative part of the cell. We tried many materials in Blender before settling on these.
Hormones are so small that hardly any pictures of them exist, so we had to invent a visual language for them. It had to show how important they are and still fit the rest of the scene.
We got there through a long series of form studies. The final four shapes clearly belong together but are easy to tell apart. All four stay abstract.
We built the experience in SwiftUI and RealityKit for visionOS, with 3D assets made in Blender and assembled in Reality Composer Pro. None of us had worked with the platform before, so we learned it while building.
An unfamiliar shader system, export problems between Blender and Reality Composer and two people sharing code over GitHub taught us about compatibility and about designing within technical limits.
The final prototype runs on Apple Vision Pro. Students walk through the follicular, ovulation and luteal phases, drag the four hormones through the room and explore how they rise, fall and influence each other around the egg cell.
Sound plays a large part. The egg cell's sound comes from where it stands in the room and every interaction has its own feedback sound. A spoken explanation plays from the phase panel, which moves along with the students through the cycle. The project was featured in Hochparterre Campus.
The ovulation cycle is one of the body's basic processes, but the way it is taught makes it hard to remember. Biology lessons show it as static diagrams at a microscopic scale, with nothing to relate it to.
Without a way to experience the cycle, ideally with your own body, the knowledge rarely sticks. We wanted to see whether space and movement could change that.
The Ovulation Cycle Experiment is an AR experience for Apple Vision Pro, made for secondary school students. Based on the classic hormone-cycle chart, it covers the three phases of the cycle (follicular, ovulation, luteal) and the four hormones that drive them: FSH, LH, estrogen and progesterone.
Students pick up the hormones and drag them through the room, walk around the egg cell and hear each phase explained as it happens. A panel beside them keeps the curves from the textbook chart in view, so they can compare the room with the diagram they know.
We avoided the look of a biology textbook. The egg cell became an abstract object you want to walk around, built from layers of materials that each carry a meaning.
The outer cage stands for how long the ovulation cycle has been suppressed and kept invisible in society. The pearlescent nucleus marks the most precious, generative part of the cell. We tried many materials in Blender before settling on these.
Hormones are so small that hardly any pictures of them exist, so we had to invent a visual language for them. It had to show how important they are and still fit the rest of the scene.
We got there through a long series of form studies. The final four shapes clearly belong together but are easy to tell apart. All four stay abstract.
We built the experience in SwiftUI and RealityKit for visionOS, with 3D assets made in Blender and assembled in Reality Composer Pro. None of us had worked with the platform before, so we learned it while building.
An unfamiliar shader system, export problems between Blender and Reality Composer and two people sharing code over GitHub taught us about compatibility and about designing within technical limits.
The final prototype runs on Apple Vision Pro. Students walk through the follicular, ovulation and luteal phases, drag the four hormones through the room and explore how they rise, fall and influence each other around the egg cell.
Sound plays a large part. The egg cell's sound comes from where it stands in the room and every interaction has its own feedback sound. A spoken explanation plays from the phase panel, which moves along with the students through the cycle. The project was featured in Hochparterre Campus.
OC in AR
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