- Currently ‘on the burners’
- US Housing and Urban Development (HUD): VR immersion to improve the experience that the unhoused have with HUD Technical Assistants.
- National Institute for Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ): VR immersions for health care professionals to build empathy for the experience black birthing people have in this country. Education centered on developing new awareness and skills to improve outcomes for black women and their infants.
- Rollout! Cultural Competence for Law Enforcement: VR immersions to help LE develop perspective and skills to have more successful, trust-building interactions with Latinx/Hispanic community members
- Concept: Welcome Home: A globally-sourced menu of immersions to give us a chance to be with people that are quite different from ourselves, in a setting that feels familiar
- Concept: My Quartet: An interactive immersion for instrumentalists
Through My Eyes
This was our first intentional design to provide third- and first-person experience in virtual reality. The scene: A budget meeting. The action: Microbehaviors! The experience: You choose who you want to be in the meeting, and you are in their seat, in their skin, experiencing the small behaviors that help, or hurt, your team experience.
Very happy to have launched this with the help of BCT Partners in 2019. Paired with a thoughtful design, this experience leads to deep reflection on one’s own experience, unintended impacts on others, and proactive inclusive action to take. Read more about it here. Check out the trailer here.
Tech requirements: Laptop; smartphone; or VR headset.
Urban India – Mumbai
This was Steve’s first exploratory project with a focus on immersion in culture – primarily aimed at westerners who have never been to India. ‘Up close’ was the idea – with scenes shot from a motorcycle weaving through Mumbai traffic, to slow moments of observation in Dharavi and with the famous Dabbawallas as they talk amongst themselves and prepare to deliver lunches.
One participant said: “The real power of the experience was that I was no where else at that moment; I was right there. I was not sitting in this room anymore. I was in India.”
And this is part of the power of well-designed immersions for human understanding. We take you to a place of felt presence with others, in new places, seeing new faces.
Customer Empathy
This project came to us through one of our great partners, LEVR Studios.
The learning focus: Developing empathy for customers. The industry: Retail banking. The scene: A visit into the home of an elderly patron, who is behind on payments.
A good deal of interactivity in this one, as you can see, with objects in the room as ‘clickable’ items that launch different dialogue / action. It’s great to be able to transport the workforce servicing customers from afar into an intimate, personal setting to help them develop better conversational skills and seek more compassionate approaches to service.
Customer Realities and Needs
This was a project we absolutely loved doing.
The problem: Too much distance between decision-makers and end-buyers. The industry: Financial services. The answer: Find four people (not actors) who would allow us entrance into their homes to conduct a deep interview, following ethnographic techniques, to understand their worlds, and gain insight into their needs.
A college grad student, a divorced father of two, a near-retiree, and a grandmother. These immersions were structured so that teams of learners could work together to discern insights from their experience, and propose actions to take to better serve their customer segments.
Understanding Clients
Not unlike the others focused on customer-centricity, this one featured a combination of archetypal personas who represented key client demographics for whom the institution was lagging in servicing. It starts with a team meeting – you are a fly on the wall, and already you see that some things are not going well – internally.
Then, a choice of three subsequent client meetings where you can witness but also experience from first-person what the client is seeing, feeling and thinking.
This one reminds us, too, of the great joy it brings us to work with terrifically talented actors, and what it’s like to see a script we have written, and characters we have invented come to life!
Red Fern 