IAT 445: Immersive Environments

Course Description

Want to work with the latest in immer­sive tech­nol­ogy such as head-mounted dis­plays (HMDs)? IAT445 is an inter­ac­tive and project-focused course where you’ll design, create, and refine a deeply engag­ing expe­ri­ence that you will present in a final show­case to the public (often includ­ing guests from the vir­tual real­ity (VR)/gaming indus­try). In this course, we will use an immer­sion frame­work to design, create, and eval­u­ate immer­sive vir­tual envi­ron­ments and the inter­ac­tion between the user and the vir­tual envi­ron­ment. To do this, we will com­bine hands-on fun­da­men­tals with inter­ac­tion, ani­ma­tion, immer­sive vir­tual real­ity design, and the­o­ret­i­cal and research con­cerns. The project will serve to both moti­vate and implement/showcase these aspects. The course will cul­mi­nate in a final inter­ac­tive project show­case and project pitch (oral/video) of the team project..

What’s in it for you? 

You will learn how to design, build, and iter­a­tively refine an immer­sive and inter­ac­tive VR expe­ri­ence that should blow the user away and pos­i­tively affect them in a mean­ing­ful way. To do this, you will use the pop­u­lar Unity 3D game engine and guid­ance from immer­sion, pres­ence, and trans­for­ma­tive exper­ince design frame­works. You will most likely be imple­ment­ing this for head-mounted dis­plays so you’ll be able to show­case it wher­ever you go – includ­ing your next job inter­view or your next party. Combining a public project show­case  with a project web­site, an exec­u­tive sum­mary, and a final project video can fur­ther improve your resume/portfolio and marketability.

[offi­cial course out­line ]

see SFU’s Teaching & Learning blog for a news story on my first offer­ing of this course in 2013, enti­tled: “How a SIAT course in immer­sive envi­ron­ments exposed stu­dents to the real world”

Design challenge

This semester’s design chal­lenge for IAT445 is Impact: Using immer­sive expe­ri­ence design to con­tribute to mean­ing­ful solu­tions to real-world chal­lenges. That is: what is a topic that you (and your team) care very deeply about that would help create a better world? A topic you care about so deeply about that it might be worth making a purposeful/transformative immer­sive VR expe­ri­ence out of it?

Specifically, you will work in a team and use Unity and the guid­ing frame­works from this course (e.g., immer­sion, pres­ence, user-centered sys­tems design, agile devel­op­ment, trans­for­ma­tive expe­ri­ence design etc.) to iter­a­tively ideate, design, pro­to­type, and eval­u­ate an immer­sive inter­ac­tive VR expe­ri­ence that takes advan­tage of the unique affor­dances and capa­bil­i­ties of immer­sive VR expe­ri­ences. You will design for user expe­ri­ences that have the poten­tial to pos­i­tively impact users’ emo­tions, cognition/perspective and/or behav­ior that would oth­er­wise be impos­si­ble (or not as easily acces­si­ble) to most people. How can you pro­vide inter­est­ing, inspir­ing, or mean­ing­ful VR expe­ri­ences that create a pos­i­tive change in the user? That is, what expe­ri­ences can you pro­vide in VR that are oth­er­wise dif­fi­cult, dan­ger­ous, or hard to expe­ri­ence? Instead of using VR as a diver­sion and ulti­mate sen­sory over­load tool to wow people, think of ways you can use it for some­thing more inter­est­ing, novel, excit­ing, and mean­ing­ful. How will you go beyond tra­di­tional dig­i­tal expe­ri­ences and take advan­tage of the poten­tial of immer­sive technologies/VR?

Resources on Unity & VR

if you don’t have a strong back­ground in pro­gram­ming or VR devel­op­ment already, I’d sug­gest to go through some basic Unity tuto­ri­als.  It’ll be useful to have at least a basic under­stand­ing of these areas for the course projects. Prior stu­dents have found the fol­low­ing tuto­ri­als quite useful:

Examples of prior students' VR/XR projects from Bernhard's classes:

Undergrad classes

Grad/mixed:

Spring 2025 offering (in-person)

Virtual Experiences - Real Impact: VR4Good IAT 445 Project showcase, Monday March 31st (most likely)

on Monday March 31st, the stu­dents from my course on “immer­sive envi­ron­ments” (IAT 445) will be pre­sent­ing their final VR projects that they worked on for this semester.The topic was Impact: Using immer­sive expe­ri­ence design to con­tribute to mean­ing­ful solu­tions to real-world chal­lenges. That is: what is a topic that you (and your team) care very deeply about that would help create a better world? A topic you care about so deeply about that it might be worth making a purposeful/transformative immer­sive VR expe­ri­ence out of it?

details will follow

Documentation from earlier course offerings and showcases

(first taught in Spring 2013)

 

Course Objectives, Learning Goals & Desired Learning Outcomes (DLO's)

Course Goal: By the end of this course, you will gain the knowl­edge, skills, and con­fi­dence to design and develop impact­ful and eth­i­cal VR expe­ri­ences. You’ll learn to pri­or­i­tize the user’s needs and per­spec­tives while con­sid­er­ing the broader soci­etal impli­ca­tions of immer­sive tech­nolo­gies. Through hands-on projects, col­lab­o­ra­tive team­work, and crit­i­cal reflec­tion, you’ll be empow­ered to create VR expe­ri­ences that not only engage and enter­tain but also con­tribute to a more informed, empa­thetic, and respon­si­ble future. 

Desired learn­ing out­comes (DLO’s):

1. Foundational VR Knowledge and Skills

  • Understanding: Grasp the core con­cepts and ter­mi­nol­ogy of VR tech­nol­ogy (hard­ware, soft­ware, design prin­ci­ples), as well as rel­e­vant the­o­ries and frame­works for under­stand­ing user expe­ri­ence and immer­sive media, through hands-on expe­ri­ence and guided discussions.
  • Application: Apply foun­da­tional knowl­edge (includ­ing rel­e­vant the­o­ries and frame­works) to ana­lyze exist­ing VR expe­ri­ences and iden­tify strengths, weak­nesses, and areas for improvement.
  • Technical Skills: Gain pro­fi­ciency in using Unity as a tool for VR devel­op­ment, includ­ing basic inter­ac­tion design, ani­ma­tion, and prototyping.
  • VR Design Principles: Understand and apply fun­da­men­tal VR design prin­ci­ples, such as immer­sion, pres­ence, inter­ac­tion design, and user com­fort, to create effec­tive and engag­ing VR experiences.

2. Human-Centered VR Design

  • User Experience (UX): Design VR expe­ri­ences that pri­or­i­tize the desired user expe­ri­ence and user’s needs and pref­er­ences, con­sid­er­ing fac­tors such as usabil­ity, acces­si­bil­ity, and emo­tional impact.
  • Immersion and Presence: Explore design strate­gies for cre­at­ing immer­sive and com­pelling VR expe­ri­ences that evoke a sense of pres­ence and engage­ment in users.
  • User Comfort: Understand and address fac­tors that affect user com­fort in VR, such as cyber­sick­ness and other poten­tial adverse effects of VR..
  • Ethical Considerations: Consider the eth­i­cal impli­ca­tions of VR design choices, includ­ing poten­tial biases, pri­vacy con­cerns, and the respon­si­ble use of immer­sive technology.

3. Designing for Impactful Experiences:

  • Transformative Design: Understand the frame­work of trans­for­ma­tive expe­ri­ence design and apply it to the cre­ation of mean­ing­ful VR expe­ri­ences that leave a last­ing impact.
  • Ethical Considerations: Consider the eth­i­cal impli­ca­tions of design­ing immer­sive expe­ri­ences, espe­cially those deal­ing with sen­si­tive topics, and develop strate­gies for respon­si­ble VR creation.
  • Storytelling in VR/XR: Explore how to lever­age VR’s unique capa­bil­i­ties to tell com­pelling sto­ries and create emo­tion­ally res­o­nant expe­ri­ences that sup­port desired UX, goals, and impact.

4. Collaborative Project Development and Community Building:

  • Agile Methodology: Learn and apply an agile devel­op­ment process to create VR pro­to­types, incor­po­rat­ing iter­a­tive feed­back and testing.
  • Teamwork: Develop effec­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tion skills within a team set­ting to suc­cess­fully design and imple­ment a VR/XR project.
  • Feedback: Give and receive con­struc­tive feed­back to refine both indi­vid­ual and team contributions.
  • Community Building: Utilize tools and tech­niques to foster a sup­port­ive learn­ing envi­ron­ment within the larger class com­mu­nity, pro­mot­ing effec­tive learn­ing, growth, reflec­tion, and collaboration.

5. Critical Reflection and Self-Assessment:

  • Metacognition: Reflect on your per­sonal learn­ing jour­ney, iden­ti­fy­ing strengths and areas for fur­ther development.
  • Articulation: Clearly com­mu­ni­cate design choices, ratio­nale, and reflec­tions through both writ­ten and verbal communication.
  • Continuous Learning: Develop a mind­set of con­tin­u­ous learn­ing and improve­ment in the ever-evolving field of VR/XR.

What projects are fea­si­ble? While stu­dents have con­sid­er­able free­dom in choos­ing their team projects, there are a few guide­lines and restrictions

  • They have to be inter­ac­tive (includ­ing meaningul user inter­ac­tion and/or user loco­mo­tion, and poten­tial ani­ma­tions), immer­sive, and 3D. That is, you will design and build a 3D vir­tual expe­ri­ence in Unity and dis­play it immer­sively, e.g.,  using the pro­vided head-mounted dis­play you will be able to check out from the Surrey library. It should not induce neg­a­tive side effects such as cybersickness.
  • No killing/torture/violent/combat games or pornog­ra­phy. Such topics are already over­done, and our goal is to encour­age and incen­tivize inno­va­tion and explo­ration of new ideas. Student teams are encour­aged to push the medium and chal­lenge view­ers to rethink common the­o­ret­i­cal, tech­ni­cal or cul­tural assumptions.
  • Address this semester’s Design Challenge (announced and dis­cussed at the begin­ning of the course).