CASE STUDY 8 OF 8

HORSE FOR SMART GLASSES

HORSE for my smart glasses

I turned solo HORSE into a display-glasses game with one shot call, one score, and four wrist actions. I tested six concepts on the device and took one build onto the court.

Context

Designed, built, and tested on a real court, June 2026.

My role

I owned the concept, interaction design, visual direction, integration, device testing, court testing, and final decisions.

Open the playable build

What you see through the glasses

The view through the glasses on a real court: the ball above the rim under the call Right corner, off the glass — Mid-game, through the lens: the game calls the shot, the court does the rest

HORSE

MADE 0

Right elbow.

▲ Made▼ Missed◀ Undo▶ Skip

The entire interface: one shot call, one score, four actions

The Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses beside the neural wristband that reads gestures — The hardware: display glasses, plus a wristband that reads hand gestures

The game is a few words floating over a real court.

On this lens, black renders as transparent. So the interface is only the words that matter: the shot call, the score, and four actions: made, missed, undo, and skip. Everything else you see is the actual court.

600 × 600: display pixels, no scroll
4: directional actions
1: active game view

Why this exists

My wife and I used to play HORSE. These days my hoops are quick solo shootarounds, so I designed the game we used to play for the glasses I already bring to the court. During parental leave, I learned a faster prototyping workflow, moved the promising ideas onto the hardware, and let the court decide what stayed.

The canvas is a lens. The controller is your wrist.

The neural band

It reads the EMG signals in your wrist. The web app receives a pinch to select and directional swipes to move through the game.

On-device testing removed hold and double pinch because they did not fire reliably. Directional swipes record made, missed, undo, and skip. Pinch starts or selects. The glasses system menu handles leaving the web app.

From one hundred directions to one court build

A grid of HORSE interface variations including buckets, streaks, ghost races, constellations, and trick shots

I wrote the lens, court, and gesture limits first, then toggled ideas on and off in working browser builds. The cheap variations gave me options to compare once the work moved to the glasses.

01
Build 100 low-cost variations
02
Test 6 concepts on the glasses
03
Take 1 direction to the court

The count is not the accomplishment. Selection is. Hardware testing removed directions the 600 by 600 lens could not support. Court testing removed anything that competed with the shot.

The court rejected what the browser accepted

BROWSER

Motion looked promising.

A desktop screen made animated score treatments and extra states feel readable.

GLASSES

The lens exposed gesture and glare limits.

Hold and double pinch were unreliable. Bright outdoor light erased subtle detail.

COURT

The shot had to stay primary.

Motion that pulled attention from the rim came out, even when it worked technically.

What testing changed

Three lessons from hardware and court testing

01
01
Specific constraints made exploration useful.
I defined the lens, court, and gesture limits before building variations. Better direction produced better options.
02
02
Hardware testing cut unreliable gestures.
I moved each promising concept to the glasses early. The lens exposed glare, unreliable gestures, and detail that did not survive outdoors.
03
03
The court protected the shot from the interface.
I removed motion and detail that competed with the rim, even when the ideas worked technically.

IMPLEMENTATION NOTE

Claude accelerated implementation. I made the product decisions.

Claude Code generated and revised implementation under my direction. I set the constraints, integrated the build, tested it on the glasses, and decided what earned a place in the game.

TRY THE BUILD

Take the court-tested build for a run

Play in a desktop browser, or add the same build to Meta Ray-Ban Display in Developer Mode.

Other Ray-Ban Meta models do not have the display this game uses.

Play HORSE

In a desktop browser, use the arrow keys and Enter.

Install it on Meta Ray-Ban Display3 steps

1In Meta AI, open Settings, then App Info. Tap App version five times, then turn on Developer Mode.
2Open App Settings, then App Connections, Web Apps, and Add a Web App.
3Name it HORSE, paste horse-delight.vercel.app, and tap Connect. Open it from the glasses app grid.

Pinch to start. Swipe up for made and down for missed.

Meta Developer Mode guide Meta on-device testing guide

AI working method

How I used AI to move from product decision to working software

Product decision: Concept generation, gesture model, display hierarchy, outdoor trials, prototype direction, and synthesis.
AI-assisted build: I used AI coding tools to build six playable concepts, then set the gesture model and revised it after on-court testing.
Evidence: Exploration: 100 interface variations
Prototypes: 6 playable concepts
Display: 600 × 600

REFLECTION

The court made the final edit.

Specific constraints made the exploration useful. Device testing removed what the lens could not support. Court testing removed what the game did not need.