Research · Interaction Design · Unity Development
Spatial Interaction Design
How can we improve people's intuitive understanding of embodied spatial relationships through a collaborative extended reality educational game?
the question
A game you play with your body
We wanted to make abstract spatial relationships something people could feel, not just read about, by turning them into a game three people play together in one shared physical space.
We chose geometry as our testing ground, to explore whether a physical, collaborative game could make abstract concepts click, and bring people together in the process.
/process
Spatial elements we considered while designing the experience
- 01Proximity
How close or far everyone is situated in relation to each other.
- 02Orientation
What they are facing towards.
- 03Configuration
What pattern they make in relation to each other.
- 04Location
How moving towards or farther from each other affects the experience.
/process
We defined the concept through bodystorming, experience prototyping, and storyboarding
framing the research questiongame design
How the game works
Three players. The floor shows their triangle against the goal, with live distances. They orient themselves in space to match the goal triangle, collaborating and learning together.
Key design decisions and interactions
Inviting players to play the game. The game needed to draw strangers in. We designed a floor-projected triangle made of colorful moving particles, plus the "eggs" (motion trackers). "Grab an egg to start" made it clear how to begin.
Built in Unity, tracked live. Each player carries a motion-tracked marker; OptiTrack streams their positions into Unity in real time, which projects the triangle and its live distances onto the floor.
the Unity scene driving the projection