Lux et Memoria:
Holographic Habit Assistant
In personal development, the challenge of effectively tracking and improving habits in a way that engages and motivates individuals remains significant. Currently, both paper and digital habit tracking methods fall short in sustaining long-term engagement and motivation. This issue is critical as habits form the backbone of daily productivity, well-being, and overall success. We developed Lux et Memoria, a holographic habit tracker, to enhance the way individuals track, maintain, and improve their habits.
Pain points
Pen-and-paper logs
Tracking by paper often becomes repetitive and dull, leading to decreased user engagement over time. Research suggests this decline is linked to decision fatigue caused by competing tasks and distractions from daily life. Additionally, the absence of reminders means users must rely entirely on memory, and the lack of clear visualization makes progress difficult to interpret.
Digital mobile devices
Mobile apps demand a high degree of self-motivation, and research shows that creating habit consistency depends more on repetition than willpower alone. While apps often rely on notifications to nudge user actions, these alerts can quickly become intrusive, contributing to notification fatigue and disengagement.
Opportunities
Novel experience to sustain user engagement
Habit tracking can become more meaningful by introducing interactive and visually captivating experiences that motivate users to return consistently and sustain long-term progress.
Emotional connection as motivation
Users' emotional attachment to digital entities, such as virtual pets, allows for the influence of behavior in interactive technology.
Clear and dynamic visualization of progress
Visual feedback that makes achievements tangible can help users see growth over time, reinforcing their efforts and making progress feel more rewarding.
During this stage, our team imagined the unimaginable, no rules and no restrictions. The most unique, wild, and novel notions come to life. Our team quickly iterated through concepts depicting users' experience while using a habit tracker and motivational triggers for adoption.
We wanted our habit tracker to be user-centric; for this reason, we made one user persona to provide our team with a clear and concentrated goal to ensure that we solidified consistency in the design process.
Our prototyping began with a broad concept: a holographic habit tracker combined with an alarm and a time display. Early user feedback revealed redundancy with smartphones and a preference for a simpler, habit-focused device. Through multiple Think-Aloud user sessions and design iterations, we refined the design into a compact display that motivates users through visual and emotional feedback.
Think-Aloud user testing
First iteration
Second iteration
Third iteration
Implementation was critical to the success of our enchanted holographic habit tracker, divided into three major subgroups: (1) the physical structure of the hologram display, (2) software for the functionality of the holographic display, and (3) visual elements that users will select to represent the respective tracked habit.
Physical structure
Software functionality
Below is the final iteration of the Holographic Habit Assistant, developed through multiple rounds of user feedback and ideation. Although the timeline and scope of the project did not allow for further refinement, the following functions were made available and presented to academic audiences:
Holographic display: Personalized, dynamic visualizations of habits and progress, consisting of three different stages: sad, neutral, and happy.
Interactive inputs: Incorporates a joystick, buttons, and a manual curtain in the back.
Habit tracking options: Offers a menu for tracking habits and streaks, setting goals, and activating habits via designated buttons.
To evaluate our holographic habit tracker Lux et Memoria, we focused on understanding both usability and emotional engagement. We combined heuristic evaluation (based on Nielsen’s 10 heuristics) with Thinking Aloud sessions where users verbalized their thoughts while interacting with the prototype. This allowed us to capture both functional usability insights and emotional reactions, such as enchantment or connection to the holographic pet.
Procedure
Participants
Nine participants aged 18-40, mostly students already familiar with habit-tracking apps.
Process
Each session lasted 10–15 minutes. Audio recordings and screen interactions were analyzed to understand user reactions and behavior patterns.
Survey
Likert-scale and open-ended questions measured engagement, perceived novelty, usability, and enchantment.
Analysis
NVivo was used for inductive coding and thematic analysis, cross-referencing with questionnaire data.
Key insights
Make habits feel alive, not routine
Participants described the Holographic Habit Assistant (HHA) as an experience that made habits tangible and emotionally engaging. The holographic pet encouraged consistency by fostering a sense of care and responsibility.
Use visual or animated cues that react instantly to progress.
Provide emotionally resonant feedback rather than static visuals.
Design interfaces that create empathy, attachment, and curiosity.
Sustaining engagement requires balancing novelty with clear interaction cues
Include labeled toggles and a clear tutorial for first use.
Ensure visual feedback is predictable and easy to interpret.
Simplify navigation while maintaining emotional richness.
