Immersity Lab

An innovative, digital and software-based service that makes the user experience of public spaces measurable

In the face of constantly changing conditions and interests, public spaces are constantly subject to new requirements. For example, city centers struggle with challenges such as vacancies or high traffic and environmental pollution. At the same time, there is an increasing demand for attractive residential areas and sustainable mobility. Despite rapid digitalization, physical space remains the central location for everyday activities and human interaction. The question of livable spaces that meet the needs of their users is of central importance for the future viability of social coexistence. How can a public square be revitalized, a bus stop made more accessible, information better placed? Which zones are particularly visible and important to users, and how can the impact of a change be measured in advance? Often, there is a lack of evidence-based understanding of the effect of such spaces on users, which can lead to poor planning and, when implemented, to resistance and lower usage. To exploit the potential of spaces, new methods are needed that take into account not only functional but also emotional aspects, thus enabling a deeper understanding of user experience.

To this end, Immersity Lab is developing a new tool called ISA (Immersive Spatial Analysis). By means of real-time interviews and eye tracking in virtual reality simulations, the user experience (UX) of spaces becomes visible. This allows measures and designs to be evaluated in advance in terms of their functional and emotional impact. “Emotional maps” of spaces are created, which provide a data-based decision-making tool for the design. This means that possible spatial concepts can be compared with each other before any costly structural implementation. As a software-based service that makes the user experience of (not yet built) spaces visible, it can be applied to any space. In this way, the new stop or station can be examined from the point of view of orientation or the airport terminal in terms of the subjective safety of users. The data visualized in the “emotional maps” then provides the basis for planning and designing the examined spaces according to the user experience.

From many years of interdisciplinary collaboration in research projects on mobility design and virtual reality simulations at the OIMD, the idea arose to develop Immersity Lab as an application that is available for planning and practice. In an interdisciplinary team (design, software engineering, social sciences), the software-based service is optimized with the help of AI and its economic potential is examined .

The project is funded by the program Distr@l of the Hessian Ministry for Digitalization and Innovation (funding line 4a).

Type of project •Applied project (transfer)
Lead • Dipl.-Des. Julian Schwarze
Team • Hanna Bader M.A., Dr. Andreas Blitz, Max Brandl M.A., Dipl.-Des. Andreas Grzesiek, Philipp Kaltofen M.A., Dipl.-Des. Julian Schwarze, Dipl.-Des. Annika Storch
Status • ongoing
Duration • 11/2024 – 10/2026
Funding • Hessian Ministry for Digitalization and Innovation

Funding

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