Hillwood Community:
Mixed Reality Experience

Project description

Client

Hillwood Communities / Anderson Hanson Blanton (AHB)

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Type

Interactive mixed reality experience — Apple Vision Pro headset, iPad Pro (iPad OS)

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Timeline

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2024 — 2025

Role

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UX Designer

Contribution

User interface
Experience & functionality optimization
QA testing
Conduct client event

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Credits

900lbs team (Motion graphics, 3D art, creative direction, development)
Hillwood Communities / Anderson Hanson Blanton (Photography)

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Overview

Treeline is Hillwood Communities’ newest master-planned community in Denton County, TX. Ahead of development, Hillwood needed an engaging way to help realtors and future buyers visualize the community, explore its amenities, and feel excited about what was coming—both at a live unveiling event and beyond.

The challenge

How might we help users experience a future community that doesn’t yet exist—at scale, across multiple environments—while driving engagement and lead interest?

The solution needed to:

  • Feel immersive and memorable

  • Work both at live events and in smaller, ongoing settings

  • Be easy to navigate for first-time users

  • Showcase amenities, layout, and brand identity clearly

The solution

We partnered with AHB to design an interactive mixed-reality experience available on Apple Vision Pro and iPad Pro, allowing users to explore Treeline in both immersive and portable formats.

The experience combined spatial exploration, intuitive interaction patterns, and branded visual systems to bring the future community to life.

Key Experience Features

  1. Branded Visual System
    A custom art style blending VisionOS and iPadOS “glass morphism” with Treeline’s vibrant brand identity.

  2. Guided Introduction
    A teaser video and welcome message to orient users and set context.

  3. Drone View (Miniature Scale)
    A bird’s-eye, spatial view of the full community layout, allowing users to explore Treeline at a glance.

  4. Interactive Amenity Hotspots
    Tap-to-explore hotspots featuring 3D videos, descriptions, and immersive ambient sound (e.g., nature, pool, sports courts).

  5. Full-Scale Treehouse Experience
    A standout moment: a life-size, walk-around 3-story Treehouse amenity designed to surprise and delight.

  6. Self-Led & Guided Tour Modes
    Flexible navigation options to support both events and independent exploration.

  7. Wristband Map UI
    A lightweight, always-available map to help users orient themselves spatially.

Content Planning

  1. Translated Hillwood’s CAD files into optimized, game-ready 3D assets

  2. Designed interaction patterns that felt intuitive for first-time mixed-reality users

  3. Prioritized usability, performance, and clarity across both headset and tablet experiences

  4. Supported multi-station event setups to ensure fast user throughput

Results & Impact

  1. 150+ realtors experienced Treeline at the community unveiling event

  2. Overwhelmingly positive feedback on immersion, clarity, and innovation

  3. Experience reused at additional Hillwood and Perot Companies events

  4. iPads deployed to top builders, enabling ongoing use with potential homebuyers

  5. Transformed static marketing imagery into a fully immersive, interactive experience

Why it worked

By combining intuitive UX patterns with spatial storytelling and strong branding, the experience made an unbuilt community feel real—driving excitement, understanding, and engagement in ways traditional visuals couldn’t.

From Our Clients

“We’re proud to share [The Developer of the Year] award with 900lbs, our technology partner, whose innovation and collaboration were key to our success. Bringing out of the box thinking to our clients in a way that makes sense for Real Estate is what we do best!”