Immersive education space design
Reimagining the classroom as a space for curiosity, interaction, and autonomy
Problem & Challenge
Traditional classes relied on one-way lecturing: teachers passed knowledge, students received passively.
Students lacked autonomy, immersive engagement, and peer interaction.
How might we transform a classroom into a space where students actively explore and interact with knowledge, teachers, and peers?
Ideation
Explored a flow of “standby → selection → immersive learning → peer discussion.”
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Designed and iterated interactive cards that students could place on a sensor area to enter ecological scenarios.
Proposed scene-based learning with layered visuals, animations, and sound to simulate real habitats.
Project Overview
In collaboration with Shanghai Daning International Elementary School, this project aimed to bring the “museum into the classroom” by creating an immersive teaching space for nature science courses.
Education experts, engineers, graphic designers, UX designers
Team
UX Designer Intern
Role
Upgrade the traditional teaching mode with multimedia and interactive methods to encourage experiential, autonomous, and cooperative learning.
Goal
Research & Insights
Reviewed the development from Education 1.0 → 4.0, emphasizing the shift toward intelligent, immersive learning environments .
Background Study
Interviews with teachers and classroom observations highlighted the need for more participatory teaching.
User Research
Built student personas representing diverse needs, which from curiosity-driven exploration to social learning.
Personas
Students want to choose and explore content themselves.
Teachers want classes to be interactive, not just instructional.
The balance between educational depth and engaging experience is critical.
Key Insights
Design Process
Journey Map
Stage
Standby
Interactive Learning
End
Opportunities
Add short prompts or callouts to attract interaction.
Provide clear feedback like sound to confirm recognition.
Use layered info so users aren’t overloaded.
Suggest next actions to extend engagement.
Enable quick compare or side-by-side view for efficiency.
User
Behavior
Notices looping bird cards on screen.
Explores the eight ecological bird groups.
Selects a bird and places the card in the sensing area.
Observes different birds features.
Chooses another morphological feature to explore.
Rotates the button to view details of a specific bird.
Stops interacting.
Emotion
🧐 Curious, interested
😃 Excited, feels engaged
🤔 Focused
🤓 Engaged, learning
🧐 Curious
😃 Satisfied, completion
System
Response
The foreground design sets the main visual.
Cards of eight bird groups rotate in the center of the screen.
Illustrated natural background completes the scene.
The chosen card is highlighted on screen.
The display shifts to the waterfowl scene (example), showing dynamic animations of their habitat and behaviors.
Animated highlights make the selected character stand out.
A box displays key information about the chosen bird.
The info box updates with details of this character.
Animated highlights indicate another selected character.
The screen returns to the standby loop ver.
Supported on-site testing with engineers and graphic designers.
Assisted with on-site measurement and installation checks.
Considered users’ height and viewing angle to ensure usability.
Monitored engineers’ implementation and verified alignment with design intent.
Final Design
Impact
Students became more engaged and curious compared to lecture-based classes.
Teachers
The ability to make choices increased enjoyment and memory retention.
Students
School Administration Team
The proposal was endorsed by participating teachers and referenced for future curriculum innovation.
Reflection
Designing for spatial interaction required accommodating diverse needs, considering both teachers and students as active users, with parents also relevant in typical scenarios.
Gained experience in balancing content with impactful presentation for educational contexts.
Personally, I grew in:
Holistic thinking — considering multiple stakeholders in the design.
Cross-functional collaboration — working closely with engineers and graphic designers.
Iterative design under constraints — prioritizing both feasibility and user experience.