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Marlos

Marlos: a translucent glass bubble with two navy almond eyes and small satellite bubbles, floating in a warm living room that shows through his body.

An AR-powered educational platform designed for students, offering interactive, gamified lessons in STEM and the arts.

Teachers maintain full control of the curriculum, using customizable lesson plans.

Project Type
AR Educational PlatformVision Pro AR AppAR Learning Platform
Skills
UX/UI DesignAR Content IntegrationInformation ArchitectureUser Experience TestingAI Development with SDKGamification & Reward SystemsAccessibility ResearchProject Management
Team
Kaitlynn A. HawrankeRoberta Reali
Still of the Marlos companion: Marlos, a glass bubble with two dark eyes and small satellite bubbles, floats in a warm living room. Below him are suggestion chips such as Why is the sky blue? and How volcanoes work, and a bar that reads Talk to Marlos.

Short read

Expressions

A sheet of fifteen round faces with navy eyes: neutral, happy, content, thinking, excited, amazed, focused, worried, confused, curious, then gaze left, centre, right, up, and a blink.

My Role

I design the UX and UI of Marlos. Co-founded 2025 and in development, with Roberta Reali.

Marlos today

The current prototype is a local AI companion. Marlos is an AI learning helper for learners aged 10 to 14, and he looks like a small glass bubble with eyes. He has two users: the teacher runs the lesson, and each student has a personal Marlos that the lesson drives.

Research

The UI research shows two families of products that each own half of the idea. Presenter tools let a teacher move a whole class through a lesson together, but give students no AI. AI space tools give every student their own AI inside a teacher's frame, but students move at their own pace.

The same research audited the companion as it was then and found it structurally messy: up to four framed layers deep, six font weights and 21 sizes, and white on orange buttons that fail contrast.

The opening:

No product we found combines a live, teacher paced lesson with a personal AI for every student.

  1. Two surface levels at mostThe 3D room, then one glass panel. Never glass on glass.
  2. Group with space, not boxesOnly inputs, buttons and generated media get a container.
  3. Three weights: 400, 500, 600Hierarchy from size plus three text colour tokens.
  4. The bubble is the only thinking indicatorNo spinners elsewhere.

Decisions

A real bubble, not a flat picture

An earlier build was a flat billboard with connector wires to its satellites. Now the body is a glass shader sphere: it transmits and reflects the generated world, so he sits in the space instead of on top of it. The satellites are smaller free floating bubbles, with no wires.

Two renders side by side, labelled Reference (your sheet) and Marlos (built). Both show a pale glass ball with two dark eyes and thin wires leading to small satellite balls.
Reference Sheet and Earlier Build, With Wires
Marlos as a translucent bubble in a living room. The sofa and the plant behind him show through his body, bent by the glass.
Bubble Shader, Generated Room

Eyes only, driven by text

He expresses with eyes only, no mouth. His expression follows what is typed or said: no camera, and no reading of a child's face. The eyes are one continuous shape, so every mood flows into the next instead of snapping.

A sheet of fifteen round faces with navy eyes: neutral, happy, content, thinking, excited, amazed, focused, worried, confused, curious, then gaze left, centre, right, up, and a blink.
Expressions and Gaze, Eye Layer

Marlos is an AI.

Orange, with dark ink

White on orange fails contrast, so buttons filled with the accent use dark ink, never white. One typeface, Lexend, in three weights. One icon set, Phosphor, in the regular weight. Three radii only.

The product today

Marlos runs on a local language model, on one computer inside the school: the Marlos hub, not a cloud.

Student, teacher, projector

Students sign in with the class code, their name and a secret picture. The teacher describes the lesson in one sentence, Marlos drafts the steps, and the teacher moves the class through them in order. The projector shows the step and the class code, never a name.

Hub home screen: Marlos above the heading Hello, I'm Marlos. Who is here today? Two choices, I'm a student and I'm a teacher, a language switch for English and Deutsch, and the note Marlos is an AI. He runs on this school's Marlos hub, not in a cloud.
Projector view before a lesson: the lesson title How volcanoes work, step one Join the Wi Fi with a QR code, step two Open Marlos with a QR code and a six character class code, Marlos smiling, and a count of how many students are here.
Student sign in: Marlos above the greeting Hi, 5b! Let's find your name so Marlos knows it's you. An orange button with dark text reads Find my name.
Student sign in: Pick a secret picture. Only you should know it. A grid of nine picture tiles: cat, fish, rocket, tree, sun, bicycle, tulip, butterfly, umbrella.
Student view in a live lesson, upright: the step goal Look at the photo of the erupting volcano and describe what you see, an I'm ready button, the note Your teacher can see this conversation, Marlos speaking, and a photo of a volcano erupting at night shared by the teacher.
Teacher console, Today: a greeting, the next lesson How volcanoes work with its six steps and the buttons Start lesson, Preview and Edit, a Needs attention list, today's classes, and what happened since last time.
Lesson builder: the lesson Exploring Volcanoes with its goal, age range and length, a list of steps with the tools Marlos may use in each, a live preview of what students see, and the buttons Preview again and Launch.
Projector view during a lesson: step 2 of 3, the question How do volcanoes erupt? and the goal in large type, Marlos beside it, a ready count, a progress line and the join code.

Step 1 / 8 Hub homePrototype screenshot

Still of the Marlos teacher console: a dark page with Marlos above the heading What are you teaching today?, a field for one sentence with an orange Draft lesson button, an Add materials area and example lessons below.
Teacher, lesson builder
Still of the Marlos companion on a tablet: Marlos, a glass bubble with two dark eyes, floats in a warm living room above suggestion chips and a bar that reads Talk to Marlos.
Still of the Marlos companion on a phone: Marlos, a glass bubble with two dark eyes, floats in a warm living room above suggestion chips and a bar that reads Talk to Marlos.
Student

Names, classes and codes in these screens are demo data.

Honest by design

  1. 01He says he is an AI.
  2. 02Real pictures, with credits.
  3. 03The teacher sees every conversation.
The Marlos logo, an arch shaped icon above the lowercase wordmark marlos, in white on a soft gradient from lilac to orange.
Logo, Branding 2.0, Social Preview

In development

The full process

An AR-powered educational platform designed for students, offering interactive, gamified lessons in STEM and the arts. Teachers maintain full control of the curriculum, using customizable lesson plans while the AI assistant, Lumina, guides students through immersive experiences. Students engage with 3D models and simulations, receiving real-time feedback. The platform integrates with existing learning systems and supports accessibility for diverse learning needs. Marlos would partner with organizations like NASA to provide certified, cutting-edge content.

Project Type
AR Educational PlatformVision Pro AR AppAR Learning Platform
Skills
UX/UI DesignAR Content IntegrationInformation ArchitectureUser Experience TestingAI Development with SDKGamification & Reward SystemsAccessibility ResearchProject Management
Team
Kaitlynn A. HawrankeRoberta Reali

In development

What the research covers

  • Research landscape
  • Engagement sensing and ethics
  • Tool vetting
  • UI research: learner AI tutors, teacher SaaS, design principles, current UI audit
  • Classroom hub
  • Dashboards and interaction
  • Onboarding and accounts
  • Personalisation
  • School trial plan

Design rules from the UI research

  1. 1
    Two surface levels at most: the 3D room, then one glass panel. Never glass on glass.
  2. 2
    Group with space, not boxes. The gap between groups is at least twice the gap inside a group.
  3. 6
    Three weights: 400, 500, 600. Body text on glass 500, titles and key terms 600, 400 only for long reading.
  4. 8
    Young reader sizes: canvas body at least 18px, transcript at least 16px, nothing under 12px.
  5. 9
    4.5:1 for text, 3:1 for icons and focus rings, measured against the brightest frame of the room behind the glass.
  6. 11
    One icon library, one stroke weight, two sizes, hit areas at least 44px.
  7. 16
    The bubble is the only thinking indicator. No spinners elsewhere.
  8. 20
    One question per turn, about 80 words at most before a visual or widget.
  9. 21
    Never withhold forever: two hints, then a worked example, then a similar problem to try.
  10. 23
    Marlos never claims to be a person, to have feelings, or to be the learner's friend.
  11. 27
    The student is told, in words, that their teacher can see the conversation, on joining and via a small label while a lesson is live.
  12. 28
    Pause and advance are visible Marlos states, never silent lockouts.

Teacher live view: the current step What is a volcano?, a timer, the join code, three student tiles with the states Ready, Went off topic and Seems confused, and the controls Next step, Pause class, Bring everyone back and End.
Live View, Teacher Console, Prototype Screenshot
Projector view while the class is paused: Marlos above the word Paused and the line Eyes on your teacher for a moment. Your Marlos will be right here when we carry on.
Paused, Projector, Prototype Screenshot
Student home: Marlos tells the student that the teacher has started How volcanoes work, with a Join button, today's lessons in class, and the student's own topics such as Volcanoes, Planets, Fractions and Black holes.
My Marlos, Student Home, Clickable Mockup
A page for teachers titled How Marlos handles your class's data, with the sections Where the data lives, Which AI runs and What students are told.
Data and Privacy, Teacher Console, Prototype Screenshot

Names, classes and codes in these screens are demo data.

Visit websitemarlos.io