Teaching Immersive Design with ShapesXR at Loughborough University

Background and Objectives

At Loughborough University’s School of Design and Creative Arts (SDCA), we are teaching a cohort of 40 Master’s students in User Experience (UX) Design how to develop immersive experiences. As part of the curriculum, each student is equipped with a Meta or Pico headset for the semester and works in teams of five to prototype a diverse range of VR applications.

The goal is to give students hands-on experience in designing, building, and interacting with persistent, imaginative, and functional virtual environments, which are increasingly vital skills in today’s design landscape. This approach not only supports critical literacies for their future careers but also fosters collaborative problem-solving through accessible, intuitive tools.

Why ShapesXR?

In teaching UX design to our Master’s students, ShapesXR stood out for two key reasons: 

  1. It enables students to rapidly prototype their ideas in VR or directly from their desktop.

  2. It supports real-time collaboration with students represented as avatars. This social and immersive aspect aligns well with how design teams work in professional settings and enhances peer learning in the classroom.

Beyond prototyping, ShapesXR has also opened up new possibilities for mixed reality (MR) experiences and 3D creative expression. For example, using the pen tool, students were able to create expressive 3D artwork. In one recent MR project, we visualised cancer cells that appeared to float within the real-world teaching space. Students could walk around them, interact with the models, and trigger contextual audio simply by moving their hands, making abstract concepts tangible and engaging.

Our teaching staff had been working with ShapesXR for over six months prior to the module launch, developing their expertise in preparation for student instruction. For the students, onboarding was smooth—after just a few introductory sessions, they were able to begin prototyping in Shapes independently. Over a six-week period, weekly studio and workshop sessions further supported their learning and practical development.

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Results and Outlook

After a few introductory sessions, the students were able to begin prototyping in Shapes independently. Over a six-week period, weekly studio and workshop sessions further supported their learning and practical development.

The impact of using ShapesXR in this module was transformative. At the end of the semester, all 40 students completed a feedback survey:

• 83% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: “I am confident in the use of VR.”‍
• 95% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: “I am capable in the use of VR.”

Many highlighted how the hands-on experience in ShapesXR deepened their understanding of lecture content and praised the collaborative design features:

• “Good for group collaboration, we could build something together at the same time.”
• “We can communicate more with ShapesXR.”

The ability to prototype immersive experiences that others could actively explore enabled students to gather real user feedback as part of an iterative design process. This capability made the software especially valuable in preparing students for real-world UX workflows.

Given the success of this first run, we will continue using ShapesXR as a core tool in our UX teaching. Looking ahead, we plan to expand its use across the School of Design and Creative Arts. Whether to support group discussions by visualising 3D content in pass-through or to allow arts students to create expressive 3D drawings and sculptures, ShapesXR is proving to be a versatile and accessible platform.

User Experience Design is widely taught across design education, and we believe ShapesXR can bring immediate value to any institution looking to equip students with future-facing digital skills.