RESEARCHDESIGN

OXR creation tool

A web-based tool for educators to build 3D lessons and present them on the web or in an XR headset. I led research from discovery to usability testing and designed the editor.

ROLE: Product Designer & UX Researcher
USERS: K-12 and higher-ed educators
TIMELINE: Apr 2025 – Aug 2026
METHODS: Interviews, usability studies, prototyping

30+interviews & usability studies with educators

3research rounds, from discovery to usability testing

Context

OXR lets educators turn abstract or hard-to-explain concepts into 3D presentations that students can see, explore and manipulate, in a browser or an XR headset. The team needed to know who would use it, for what, and what would stop them.

Discovery research

Across two interview rounds I spoke with 21 educators: 3 in higher education, 9 in K-12 public schools and 9 in K-12 private schools, teaching anatomy, biology, chemistry, engineering, history and English.

What we learned

Interest was high, but adoption depended on fitting into how teachers already work.

Spatial views deepen understandingBeing able to have a life-size human representation of what this hominid would have been like, brought into 3D.Size, scale and relationships between objects were where 3D helped most, from molecules to historical artifacts.

3D has to fit existing workflowsWe can embed our photogrammetric scans on the website, but we cannot embed them in a PowerPoint.3D models were used in labs but not lectures, because they did not fit slide-based teaching.

Cost and training are the barriersJust putting a headset on and teaching, I think it's gonna be a jump for most people.Teachers worried about headset cost and had little time to learn new tools.

Design direction

These findings shaped three product decisions.

Slide-based, web firstLessons are built as slides, like a deck, and presented in the browser. A headset is optional.

Parent and child slidesParent slides hold the overview; child slides zoom into one structure, matching how an anatomy instructor moves from gross to microscopic.

Annotate as you teachLabels, information cards, images and audio attach to the model, so instructors can explain without leaving the scene.

Usability testing

In round three, educators tried the headset, then built a project, added models, presented on the web and in XR, and joined a session as a student while thinking aloud. I logged issues by priority with the team.

Present vs. Start Session (P0)Having both buttons in edit mode confused users. Sessions now start only from Present.

Hidden proportional scaling (P0)The handle was hard to find. It now sits at the corner and is the most prominent handle.

Slide strip went unnoticed (P0)Thumbnails blended into the scene. The strip now sits on white.

No size reference (P1)Users could not judge scale. The selected model now shows its real dimensions.

Library

Search works across models, images and audio, with subject filters. Models already in the scene are marked.

Transform

Tools are labeled with keyboard shortcuts. A 3D gizmo shows the model's bounding box: the corner handle scales uniformly and axis handles scale one direction. A size readout gives real-world scale, and Delete removes the model.

Information cards

Cards anchor to a point on the model and preview live while the instructor edits title, description, image and narration.

Lesson structure

An outline and grouped thumbnails show which child slides belong to each parent slide.

Live session

One bar holds join details, audience count, Recenter view and the switch to XR. Students can send questions during the lesson.

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