Donnie J
Lockett
Experience designer, UX and XR · New Kensington, Pennsylvania
I’m Donnie, and New Kensington is my hometown. I’ve spent most of my working life teaching people new technology so they can use it on their own. That started at Best Buy when I was sixteen and ran through Apple, where I was part of the Vision Pro launch. Now I teach virtual and augmented reality at the Digital Foundry, and I show people how to use AI. I build websites that small business owners can run themselves, and I work on film shoots and fly drones. I’m also building NK City, a 3D copy of the town that you can drive through. Whatever the project, I work the same way: understand the problem, build it, test it, and make it useful.
How do you want to see me?
- NK CityMy own project since 2023, built in a game engine
- Deadstock & DandiesThe website for a sneaker shop on Fifth Avenue in New Kensington
- Fields Mobility GroupThe website and quote form for a private transportation business
- Film and droneCrew on Dick’s Sporting Goods, UPMC and MotoAmerica shoots, and drone video for the Four Chord Music Festival
- TeachingClasses for people who have never worn a headset
2011 to 2023 Best Buy, Sprint, AT&T, Citizens Bank, Comcast Xfinity
A lot of the people I sold to had already decided the technology was too complicated for them. The whole job was making it not feel that way.
- Best Buy, 2011 to 2014. My first sales floor.
- Sprint, 2014 to 2017. Sales lead and key holder in a dealer store, a Sprint and RadioShack store I helped open as team lead, and a corporate store.
- AT&T, 2017 to 2019. Retail sales manager. Ran a commission floor and coached a team.
- Citizens Bank, 2019 to 2021. Banker.
- Comcast Xfinity, 2021 to 2023. Retail sales consultant. Sorted out billing and service problems and kept customers who wanted to cancel. In one commission period I beat my revenue goal by 16% and my internet sales goal by 26%.
Selling taught me to ask open questions before I explain anything, so the customer tells me what they actually need.
2023 to 2025 Apple, technical specialist and Apple Vision Pro expert
Apple Vision Pro came out in February 2024, and I was part of that first-generation launch. At the time it was the newest technology you could get: a headset that puts apps, photos and video in the room around you, controlled with your eyes and hands. Apple calls that spatial computing.
Each demo ran fifteen to twenty minutes and followed Apple’s script. I learned the script itself was teaching the customer. The words I used, their order and each section of the demo took them from my first sentence to using the headset themselves.
2016 to now Film, drone and stage work
I’ve filmed and edited BMX riding for most of my life.
- Dick’s Sporting Goods. Props assistant on commercials.
- UPMC. Location assistant.
- MotoAmerica. Camera assistant.
- Gold Goat. On camera in an energy drink commercial.
- Live events. Stagehand and working lead on crews putting together the stage, sound and video.
- Four Chord Music Festival, FNB Stadium. Drone video.
- Real estate. Drone work.
Film taught me how a place reads on screen. Drones taught me how it reads from above.
I check NK City against the footage from that August flight. First thing I noticed: its river bridge was touching the water instead of arching over it.
2024 to now Digital Foundry at New Kensington, contract XR instructor and curriculum designer
At the Digital Foundry, a manufacturing and technology training center, I design and teach AR, VR and mixed reality for people who have never worn a headset. AR adds digital things to the room you’re in, VR puts you somewhere else, and mixed reality blends the two. XR covers all three. The sessions are hands-on, and I give feedback on what people make.
- Nov 2024. A first headset demo for a manufacturing class.
- May 2025. A two-hour session, designed and taught with a co-instructor.
- Nov 2025. Back to present for the next manufacturing class.
- Apr 2026. Joined my co-instructor’s class to demo Apple Vision Pro.
- Definitions: who knows what?
- Applications: who knows how?
- Integration: how is it used in manufacturing?
- Manufacturing use cases, the part I led
- Examples: a slice picture, a video demo
- Group inquiry on the first two questions, with physical and visual prompts
- Headset familiarization, 10 minutes
- A Polycam scan
- Team-up discussions around the questions, 10 minutes
I’m also studying for a B.S. in psychology, with a media and technology concentration, at the University of Phoenix, expected spring 2027. The courses in cognition and research methods help me explain why a lesson works.
2016 to now Likedeej Tech Consulting, owner
Freelance since 2016, under the Likedeej name since 2023: websites, branding and marketing for small businesses, including a chiropractic practice. Client work pays for the tools NK City runs on.
Deadstock & Dandies
Deadstock & Dandies is a sneaker shop on Fifth Avenue in New Kensington. I designed and built its website, 412dandies.com, from time spent in the shop. Every style on the wall is on the site, and every one takes an offer that goes straight to the owner. The shop can run the site from a phone, and I wrote them a help page.
Fields Mobility Group
Fields Mobility Group is a private transportation business for long-distance, airport, medical and corporate trips. I designed and built its website, fieldsmobilitygroup.com, around a quote form. I decided which questions each answer leads to, so a medical trip asks how the passenger gets around and whether the driver should wait. The owner can track each request and make promo codes.
2023 to now NK City, my own project
NK City is a digital twin of New Kensington: a 3D copy of the real town. Real streets, real houses, the stop signs where they actually are.
I build it in Unreal Engine, a game engine, along with GIS mapping software, Python and AI. The raw material is my own drone footage and public map data, like U.S. Geological Survey laser scans and county property lines, and I checked that I’m allowed to build on all of it. People who live here recognize their own streets. When the city is finished I plan to bring it to the Foundry’s classes.
Before any of the technology, I was writing about the town’s history. In September 2023 I bought a drone and wrote a plan for a digital version of the town. I didn’t have the skills to build it, so I went looking for a team. Asking how it would be built taught me the words for it, like photogrammetry, which means making 3D models from photos. Over the next three years I built it myself, learning whatever it needed next. I learned map coordinates by standing on my street and finding myself on the map, and I knew the town well enough to see when the map was wrong.
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Sep 2023.
Bought a drone and wrote a plan for a digital New Kensington.
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Jul 2026.
Started building it in Unreal Engine. First the ground, from U.S. Geological Survey laser scans, checked against five measured points.
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Jul 10, 2026.
Then every building, from public map outlines of the town, with the streets from OpenStreetMap, a free public map.
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Sep 6, 2026.
The whole town as one checked version: about 11,000 buildings with windows, doors and porches, the trees, the river and the bridges.
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Sep 8, 2026.
Moved the town into City Sample, Epic’s free city project, so you can walk down Fifth Avenue.
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Sep 13, 2026.
Measured the Sixth Avenue bridge from the 2019 laser scan and rebuilt it. Over Constitution Boulevard the deck now sits within two inches of the measurement.
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Sep 26, 2026.
Gave it a real look, checked against real sources: trees at their measured height, traffic signals at 54 intersections, and the courts at JFK Park. Then the first flythrough, and the first side-by-side of my drone stills against the twin from the same camera.
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Oct 2026.
Went back through my drone footage from 2022 to 2026. It showed two things the twin was missing: the ball fields by the Valley High School stadium and a second, smaller water tank. Both are built now.
If you want to help pay for NK City, you can buy me a coffee.
I still like working on a team. I’ve led sales teams and stage crews, and worked under someone else’s lead on film sets and alongside a co-instructor in class. Everyone in a group brings some leadership, whether or not they’re the one in charge.
Let’s build something.
Now New Kensington, Pennsylvania
Available for XR and spatial work, websites, film and drone, and teaching. I teach people to use AI the way I build with it: what to ask for, and how to check what comes back.
It’s in New Kensington.