The final stop on October 10th was the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design, XR Lab, and for someone deeply invested in UX Design for XR, the experience was invaluable. The visit offered a powerful look into how Extended Reality (XR) is being integrated into advanced academic practice, not as a gadget, but as a rigorous research tool.

The Interdisciplinary Model and Research Imperative

It was a true privilege to meet Professor Luisa Caldas, who joined the session during her sabbatical, emphasizing the importance of the topic. My discussion with Botond Bognar was particularly insightful. He walked me through Berkeley’s interdisciplinary XR model, which seamlessly blends elements of architecture, environmental design, and digital storytelling.

Crucially, Botond emphasized a research-first approach to all XR development. As an emerging technology, he stressed that impactful products demand deep, foundational inquiry before the build phase.

XR in Transformation

Berkeley’s work provided concrete examples of XR’s transformative potential:

• Sustainability: Developing digital twins to model and understand environmental systems.
• Narrative: Creating immersive experiences for brand storytelling and environmental education.

The XR Guild Mixer

The afternoon concluded with the XR Guild Mixer Bay Area, a dynamic event that brought together the best minds in the field. Key takeaways included an insightful panel discussion with XR leaders focused on ethical and impactful technology, including Avi Bar-Zeev, Professor Luisa Caldas, Botond Bognar, and Amy LaMeyer.

The evening was filled with innovative prototype demos by Julian Reyes, Nicole Lazzaro, Kevin Ang, Evo Heyning, Dominique Wu—including learning about ordinary.space, an amazing an amazing spatial product design app. from Gregor Finger —confirming that the future of design lies in these immersive, human-centered technologies.