← ProjectsXR / Spatial Studies
Exploring how digital guidance can belong to a physical place.
- Role
- XR interaction designer & prototyper
- Timeline
- Creative technology study · 2024
- Team
- Independent project
The campus is already an interface
XR / Spatial Studies explores augmented-reality wayfinding for the UCA Farnham campus. The setting matters: someone finding a room is moving through entrances, junctions and changes of level, not studying a map in isolation.
The concept asks where a digital prompt can help someone interpret a real place, and where that prompt would compete with the information already around them.
Design around the next decision
The route is treated as a sequence of decisions rather than a continuous stream of instructions. At an entrance, a visitor needs to know whether they have reached the right building. At a junction, they need to recognise which direction to take. At the destination, they need a clear arrival state.
These are design scenarios for the concept. They should not be read as documented participant findings until the observation and testing records are added.
Let landmarks do some of the work
The proposed guidance refers to stable features in the environment. A prompt connected to a visible entrance or landmark can be checked against the place itself, instead of asking someone to trust an isolated floating arrow.
Between decisions, lightweight reassurance can help maintain continuity. Near a turn, the prompt should prioritise direction. On arrival, the system should make completion clear and stop asking for attention.
The difficult states belong in the design
Spatial guidance needs a plan for uncertainty: a blocked route, tracking loss, an inaccessible level change or a visitor who takes a different turn. A convincing static mock-up does not establish how the system handles any of these states.
The next iteration should test guidance at walking pace and include a non-AR alternative. The physical environment remains the primary source of safety and orientation.
A concept to evaluate in place
The current contribution is a vocabulary for when guidance appears, what it points to and when it recedes. It frames spatial interaction around navigation decisions rather than visual spectacle.
Evaluation should involve people unfamiliar with the campus and include accessible routes. Wrong turns, missed prompts, recovery and attention to the surroundings would provide more useful evidence than how convincing an overlay looks in a presentation.
The best spatial interface knows when the place can speak for itself.