Artifact Technologies Partners with Texas Immersive Institute to Prepare for Launch of Mixby App

The Texas Immersive Institute (TXI) is proud to announce its partnership with Artifact Technologies in the launching of their newest digital media experience, the Mixby app. 

Mixby is designed to create a digital sharing zone around a location to help bring people together and enhance their experience at said location. Texas Immersive (TXI) students worked alongside TXI founder and digital experience expert Professor Erin Reilly as they explored the possibilities of micro-social networking while working with Mixby. This partnership has also led to the first-ever Immersive Fellowship for the TXI program. 

Experimental Storytelling students focused their efforts on testing Mixby user experiences. After completing the user testing stage, data was then handed over to a select group of students partaking in the Immersive Fellowship. This program prepares selected graduate students to work in experience design, project/ product management in advertising, entertainment, technology, retail, and professional service firms.

These Fellows have worked endlessly to represent the Advertising & PR School at Moody College of Communication and the Information Studies in the Information School at the University of Texas in the best way possible and seemed to have made a lasting impression on Artifact co-founder, George Henny.

“The presentations on their uses of Mixby were clever and delightful. And we were able to create relationships that continue to this day,” said Henry regarding his experience working with TXI students. “We were able to soft-launch Mixby at UtopiaFest 2021 thanks to one of the Fellows, and glean key insights on improving our market understanding and adjust Mixby with real-life experience."

The Texas Immersive Institute and Artifact Technologies are continuing to work together preparing Mixby for its official launch coming later this year. The two are currently seeking investors to help fund the next steps in the process. 

“After conducting research regarding the user experience in Experimental Storytelling and working on the soft launch at UtopiaFest with the Fellowship program, I believe Mixby has a lot of potential to grow.” Madison Phelan, a TXI graduate student with a degree from UT in Media Analytics, had this to say about their experience working on the Mixby app. “ Our goal with the Mixby project is to create a place where people can communicate and feel connected. I am excited to see where Mixby goes once we move onto the next step.”

With the efforts of the Texas Immersive Institute students, Fellows, and Erin Reilly, digital immersive experiences have been driving development and refinement of the Mixby app. Artifact Technologies plans to continue to work with TXI to discover the possibilities of micro-social networking.  

About The Texas Immersive Institute

The University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Immersive Institute at the Moody College of Communication partners with industry to imagine the unknown into existence through the practice of immersion. The institute is a group of faculty and student artists, scientists, and humanists who create novel, interactive, intimate experiences that move between the physical and digital world that will dramatically change in the near future.

About Artifact Technologies  

We are a dynamic team of strategists, creatives, storytellers, and marketers based in the Puget Sound region. Our diverse community brings 20+ years of marketing and consulting expertise with clients ranging from small and medium-sized cross-industry businesses to international IT enterprise clients. 

Media Contact:
Julia Mata- julia.mata@utexas.edu