Impact case study database

The Blended Spaces framework and design principles have been applied in diverse sectors including tourism, energy management and sustainability, architectural visualisation and healthcare. This has enabled improvements in user engagement resulting in a wide range of impacts including commercial, environmental, health and wellbeing and on understanding, learning and participation.

Tourism

The understanding gained from using the Blended Spaces framework and design principles in a number of tourism scenarios led to the creation of a UX architecture for tourism apps. This was the basis of the award-winning VisitScotland ‘ScotlandVR’ mobile app designed by Benyon and Mival and developed by Whitespace, an Edinburgh based digital media agency. Launched in January 2017 as part of Scotland’s Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology, the ScotlandVR app has been downloaded and used by over 100,000 people globally as of the end of 2020. “ Delivering that level of installs in week one is unprecedented for a tourism destination VR app” said Mark Irwin, VisitScotland’s Senior Brand Manager [C1]. Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs, said: “ This virtual reality app provides people across the globe with a window into Scotland’s fantastic attractions. A team from Edinburgh Napier University developed the concept for this app, which demonstrates the pioneering spirit and ingenuity of Scotland’s academic, technology and tourism sectors.” [C4]

Designers at Kodak, in collaboration with Professor Brian O’Keefe, applied the Blended Spaces framework to develop novel user interfaces and experiences. The team leading that work (which included Kodak’s Chief Scientist Ken Parulski and O’Keefe), launched the spin-out start-up, Tour Blend Innovations LLC, in 2013. Based in New York State, it creates mobile AR apps for tourism and holds 3 US patents for mobile enabled digital tourist experiences created through the blended framework, co-authored by O’Keefe and granted between 2018 and 2020 [C6]. Ken Parulski said of the work “The Blended Spaces Framework that Brian O’Keefe worked on with Professor Benyon significantly impacted the way Tour Blend approached the design of the novel, digitally-enabled user experiences for mobile devices that we created.”

Based on the Blended Spaces framework Mival developed and launched an app-enabled blended experience for the internationally renowned Scottish sculpture park Jupiter Artland in 2014. Flint expanded the work [R6], creating a Minecraft version of the park in a mixed reality game in collaboration with primary schools across Scotland, from Ratho to Orkney. By the end of 2020 it had been used by over 1,000 young people, both through physical trips to Jupiter Artland and through virtual visits enabled by the game. In April 2020 a special event using the platform was created as an educational tool for children in the Coronavirus lockdown, with several hundred school children participating, Director of Jupiter Artland, Nicky Wilson said of the platform “ *We are thrilled to be able offer people a little slice of Jupiter magic, especially now as parents face increased pressure with home-schooling...it provides a safe space to learn about art.*” [C7]

Building Energy Management

The underpinning research in energy management undertaken during the Future Energy Management project [G4] focussed on interface and UX design to promote sustainable energy practice in both residential and commercial environments. The blended space framework [R5] informed the user interface and interaction design developed by Mival within the project, which industrial partner Netthings (now J-Teq Energy) implemented into their Energy Manager product. The Energy Manager interface leads to reduced energy consumption by blending energy usage data collection, analytics and prediction models with in situ screen interfaces encouraging and influencing behavioural change through energy awareness. Since the start of 2017 the Energy Manager product has been installed into over 15,000 commercial and residential properties across the UK with an approximately 20% average resulting reduction in energy usage after deployment [C5]. The product has been evaluated to be worth two code credits under the UK Government’s voluntary Code for Sustainable Homes.

Design and Sustainability

The Lions’ Gate Garden at Edinburgh Napier University uses the blended space framework in its design. The Garden promotes ecologically sustainable activities and education alongside technology. It is a digitally-augmented garden built within the University’s Merchiston campus, which uses the application of embedded sensors and augmented reality. Initially a prototype for Scotland’s Garden Festival 2017, with over 20,000 visitors, it is now a permanent installation at the University. It has created a direct link to the permaculture community; permaculturist and author Graham Bell, who advised regarding its creation said:” An additional function of the garden was to connect with the local community, offering a teaching space for the principles involved, a meeting area and a demonstration of how it is possible to grow healthy food in an attractive way in an urban location, whilst also providing a haven for wildlife.” [C8] There have been 2,000 visits to the garden since its creation. It performs a central role in the teaching of sustainable design in both the School of Computing and the School of Arts & Creative Industries by providing a real life situation in which students can conduct applied projects and over 200 student projects to date have focused on the garden. Professor Sally Smith, Dean of the School of Computing, said “ The garden is a living, outdoor lab for computing students researching Internet-of-Things, Data Science, Software and Human-Computer Interaction” [C8].

**Interactive Collaborative Environments

The underpinning research in immersive interactive environments [R5] led to a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between Mival and Benyon, and architectural visualisation company Soluis Group Ltd. The KTP combined Soluis’s expertise in projection mapping in dome environments and architectural visualisation with the Blended Spaces framework and design principles, leading to the creation of a new product for the company called the Reality Portal. The Reality Portal enables clients and collaborators to ‘step in’ to a proposed architectural project at full 1:1 scale, so they can experience the transformation of a space and contribute suggestions to improve the final design. The Blended Space framework helped to shape and direct the commercial integrations possible within the Portal space including developments and partnerships with key AECO (Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Owner) suppliers and software companies. In 2017 Soluis created the spinout company ‘Sublime’ to market and develop the Reality Portal, helping businesses capitalise on better architectural design review, enhance risk reduction, improve stakeholder engagement and attract public attention. It has transformed companies’ immersive spaces into collaborative spaces. In 2017, GBP600,000 revenue directly attributable to the KTP project output was generated for the Soluis Group, and the final report projected a GBP3.9million annual increase in revenue by 2020, due to the expansion in functionality and capability. Scott Grant, CEO of Soluis, said “ *Global brands such as Wework, Reviztu, Jordan's Cereal etc, all became clients directly based on input of the KTP that Soluis' existing business offerings would not have been able to satisfy.*” [C2]

Healthcare

The underpinning research in healthcare and interactive spaces explored designing for clinically useful interactive experiences [R4] and led to a collaboration with artist and designer of NHS Dignified Spaces, Alexander Hamilton, who was working on blended space environments in Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH).

In 2014 Hamilton approached Mival for a collaboration to design and develop the PlayPod installation for Glasgow’s Child Protection Unit within the QEUH. The collaboration resulted in an interactive experience that enables children visiting the unit for forensic examination to control and shape aspects of their clinical environment through digital projection, lighting and sound. More than 500 children a year undergo assessment for sexual abuse within the hospital’s unit and the surroundings that are intuitively created by the children themselves empower them whilst also engaging with the intent to reduce stress during such a challenging ordeal.

Mival and Hamilton used the same technical and UX framework in a second collaboration between 2016 and 2018 for 3 therapy rooms in Edinburgh’s Hospital for Sick Children. These rooms facilitate clinically useful interactions within a Blended Space for physiotherapy, occupation therapy and speech therapy. In addition, 44 ‘distraction spaces’ were embedded across the hospital during the creation of the new hospital wings during 2019 using the knowledge from the Glasgow project, for patients who are undergoing clinical assessment and treatments. When fully utilised the 47 spaces are expected to benefit upwards of 700 patients and more than 100 clinicians a day. Alexander Hamilton said : “The use of the Blended Spaces design framework was hugely impactful in understanding and developing the digitally blended components of sound and visual work that complemented and enhanced the physical and material aspects of the space.” [C3].