Urban Inferno: Confronting Urban Heat Islands

Experience the Arizona of 2053

Urban Inferno: Confronting Urban Heat Islands

Experience the Arizona of 2053

An interactive VR case study on designing immersive experiences to educate and inspire action on climate change. This report details the journey of a collaborative project to make the future tangible today

Do you have what it takes?

Do you have what it takes?

The Challenge & concept

Climate change is an abstract concept with long-term consequences, making it difficult for people to feel a personal connection or a sense of urgency. Our core challenge was to design a virtual reality experience that could bridge this gap by simulating the future impacts of rising heat and engaging participants in making meaningful decisions to safeguard a city's future.

Inspiration

Project Outcomes

Enhanced Engagement


The immersive VR format led to significantly higher user participation and emotional investment compared to traditional media

Effective Awareness


Participants demonstrated a clearer understanding of climate change consequences and the impact of sustainable choices.

Successful Deployment


The final experience was successfully deployed in the specialized Dreamscape VR Labs, showcasing technical proficiency.

The VR Experience Flow

1
Cosmic Voyage

The experience begins with an immersive journey through space, guided by the AI assistant "Breeze." This sets a grand scale and prepares the user for landing in a new world.

2
Belmont Today

Participants land in the present-day fictional city of Belmont, Arizona. They can explore the environment and establish a baseline understanding of the city's current state.

3

The 2053 transformation

The city dramatically transforms into an unlivable 2053. High heat index effects are visualized, showing a ravaged landscape and communicating the dire consequences of inaction.

4
The power of Choice

Users are presented with a 3D model of the city and empowered to make sustainable changes using intuitive hand-tracking controls, seeing the direct impact of their decisions.

Project Evaluation

Script Development

Link to Script

Link to Script

Design Board

Scenario:

User has to build sustainable city while preventing urban heat island effect

Expectations:

  • Collaboration

  • Good Decision Making

  • Gain Environmental Knowledge

  • Have Fun!

Stages

User Goals

Activities

Interactivity

Feeling

Expectation

Scene1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 5

Scene6

Understand the situation

Learn the past heat levels and understand the concept of urban heat effect

Understand clearly what is the task and how to reduce heat level

Build the city which is having low heat levels

Build the city which is having low heat levels

Reflecting on what they learnt

Listening to information

Listening to the information about data points

Listening to the information about data points

Split into groups and start the activity

Viewing the resulting heat metrics

Watching people happily roaming around without worrying about the heat

Listening and looking at the environment

Listening and looking at the environment

Listening and looking at the environment

Reaching forward and selecting the components, talking with teammates

The winner lifts the trophy, celebrating with team

Listening and looking at the environment

Excited

Emoji

Curious

Emoji

Curious

Emoji

Thinking

emoji

Happy/Sad

Emoji

Satisfied

Emoji

Understanding the whole experience and expecting to do the task successfully

Trying to comprehend the data points and understand the increase levels

Trying to comprehend

Building a city with a low heat island effect

Learn how selecting materials to build city can influence heat index

Appreciating how materiality could influence temperatures in the city

User Journey Map

Design Board

Script Development

Link to Script

Asset Development

Key components


  • Scene Development: Each scene was meticulously crafted to evoke specific emotions and actions from users.

  • Asset Generation: We used assets developed in unity, blender and other 3D softwares provided by the design team and Unity for creating a VR experience.

  • Narrative: Breeze's narrative serves as a guiding voice, providing context and motivation throughout the experience.

  • Heat Index Calculation: Discussed methods for integrating climate data into the simulation to adjust the visual and gameplay effects according to the heat index.

  • Hand to Button Interactions: Outlined approaches for making user interactions with buttons more intuitive and responsive in the VR environment.

  • Grid/Tile Spawning Functionality: Explored solutions for dynamically generating and managing tiles within the game space, crucial for the modularity of the city design.

  • Audio Feedback Implementation: Reviewed strategies for incorporating audio cues that enhance the immersive experience, reacting to user actions and environmental changes.

  • Integration of elements: Ambient sounds, music, and visual cues were integrated to immerse users in the narrative and facilitate engagement with the city-building task.

  • Animation: Develop timelines for animations to contribute the storytelling for the events.

Initially we planned on making a large scale cityscape, due to issues with technical compatibility we scaled it to a table sized view instead.So we went ahead with the concept of a 3D model of Belmont within the Dreamscape Grid, the team envisioned providing users with a tactile experience of city building and environmental intervention. This led to the idea of users manipulating its structures, fostering a sense of agency and responsibility in Virtual Reality.

Key issues

Technical Designer & Unity Developer

As part of the software development team, my role was to translate the project's design and narrative goals into a functional and immersive VR experience within the Unity engine.


Spatial Design & Scene Building: Designed and constructed the core Unity scenes, arranged 3D assets to build the city of Belmont, and managed the technical implementation of the environment.


3D Asset Integration: Utilized SketchUp and Blender to create and optimize 3D models for real-time VR performance, tackling technical challenges to ensure visual fidelity.


Interaction & UI Implementation: Integrated the Dreamscape hand-tracking controls for intuitive object manipulation within the 3D space.



Design Team


Storytellers

Software Dev Team

Audio Team

My role and contributions


Professors of ASU Mix Center

ASU Dreamscape Learn and ASU Meteor Studio

Resume