Virtual Reality & Tactility
Environmental advocacy often relies on facts, charts, or abstract storytelling. But data rarely changes behavior at a gut level. The challenge: how do you make someone feel deforestation, not just know about it?
Death of the Pando
I designed a VR experience that embodied the perspective of a tree. It combined:
- Tactile grounding: feet sunk into textured soil platforms.
- Embodied growth: haptic pulses rose through the body to simulate height and sway.
- Narrative soundscape: whispers of wind, birds, and rustling branches placed the user in a living forest.
- Impending doom: the crack of an axe, the vibration of impact, the shudder of collapse.
This was not about looking at a tree in VR — it was about being a tree.
Solution
By designing reality through touch + embodiment, the experience bypassed abstraction. Users no longer processed a message; they lived it.
- Verbal advocacy → awareness.
- Virtual Reality + Tactility → empathy.
Impact
Participants described a visceral sense of vulnerability and connection — emotions charts and slides never evoke. The experiment illustrates how immersive design methods can serve advocacy, education, and policymaking by translating global issues into lived, felt experiences. Donations and petiition signs up were 135% more when compared to previous fundraisers.