Reimagining Home: A New Home Interface Framework for the Apple Vision Pro
2025
Skills: UI Design, Design Research, Swift, VisionOS SDK (ARKit, RealityKit, Reality Composer Pro)
For my Princeton Computer Science Thesis, I worked with Professor David Reinfurt and Professor Parastoo Abtahi to reimagine a new home view interface for the Apple Vision Pro.
If you would like to read the thesis, feel free to contact me.
Abstract:
We are shifting from screen-based computing to spatial computing with the rise of AR/VR technologies. In this context, the interface is no longer bounded behind a screen but exists within physical space. This thesis questions what it means to design an interface for a space, and seeks to answer the question through the Apple Vision Pro. While the Vision Pro introduces innovative user experiences, its current home interface remains rooted in 2D convention: a multi-page grid of flat application icons. Drawing from Apple's design legacy of simplicity, playfulness, and deference, this thesis introduces 2 key components for a new Home interface: 1) a new visual library of tactile and playful 3D application icons and 2) an immersive home space with a custom interaction model to bring app icons to life in the user's physical space. The resulting interface is one that emphasizes play and personalization; this interface aims to propose a framework for future spatial interfaces and through it, encourage more efforts for research and exploration in spatial UI/UX design.
Existing Approaches:
To place the Vision Pro’s home screen in the larger context of AR/VR interface design, we compared it to other home screen interfaces of AR/VR devices like the Meta Quests and Android XR.
Meta Quest Series & Meta Horizon OS
Meta Quest Universal Menu
Meta Quest 2 Tri-window Home Environment
Meta Quest 3 Home Environment
Meta’s approach to “home” is their Universal Menu—a floating menu bar with shortcuts to the user’s most used or essential apps like the App Library.
But is this home?
The Quest 2 introduced a tri-window environment where users could attach at most 3 windows to the Universal Menu. This allows attached windows to be moved together and creates a desktop workflow environment.
But is this home?
The Quest 3’s home environment remains relatively the same as the previous models. The same pattern occurs with the Quests as in the Vision Pro: we live in 3D space, but we are given static 2D window interfaces to be our home.
This is not home.
Android XR & Samsung Project Moohan
Android XR Homescreen on the Samsung Moohan Headset Prototype
Set to release in 2025, Project Moohan is a collaboration between Google and Samsung to create a new Extended Reality (XR) / Mixed Reality (MR) headset. The images above are screenshots from MKBHD’s preview of the prototype.
