Shared insights into interactive and impactful XR

The project Shared Insights into Interactive and Impactful XR explores how immersive learning environments can be designed to support learning, reflection, and meaningful professional practice. 

Together with XR creators and partners from the healthcare and public sectors, we analyze existing applications—such as VR‑Gedeelde Smart and the BEP environments—and collect experiences from designers, healthcare professionals, communication advisors, and environmental analysts. We build on existing XR learning environments that have been in long-term use and on a proven partnership, meaning that no new technology needs to be developed and all resources can be fully devoted to research, analysis, and validation. By linking practitioners’ experiential knowledge with insights from conversation analysis, user experience design, adoption theories, and smart education, we develop and validate a set of generic design and pedagogical principles for effective and responsible XR learning environments. These principles focus, among other things, on clarity, interaction, reflection, accessibility, and values‑based design. 

The results generate scalable knowledge for the broader XR sector: from design studios and public organizations to educators working with immersive technologies. In doing so, the project contributes to a more responsible and inclusive use of XR in society and provides concrete tools for digital decision‑making and complex communication. 

The project consists of five work packages that answer the central research question:  
Which generic design and didactic basic principles are needed to make XR learning environments effective, inclusive, and reflective, so that users develop communication skills that contribute to improved interaction with their target groups? 
 
The research plan combines: 
1. theoretical grounding; 
2. design-oriented research with XR makers; 
3. empirical user research in practice; 
4. synthesis and validation of generic principles; and 
5. implementation and dissemination to the IX sector and education. 
 
Within the work packages, theory, design, and practice are continuously integrated. Professionals from SMEs, public organizations, and healthcare organizations are directly involved in the design, testing, and interpretation of the outcomes. 

The results generate scalable knowledge for the broader XR sector: from design studios and public organizations to educators working with immersive technologies. In doing so, the project contributes to a more responsible and inclusive use of XR in society and provides concrete tools for digital decision‑making and complex communication. 

The two most applicable SDGs are:  
SDG 4: Quality education 
SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure