Exploring Skeuomorphism in Extended Reality (XR)

Description

“Exploring Skeuomorphism in Extended Reality (XR)” re‑imagines everyday digital tasks, such as messaging, emailing, music and video consuming, through a three‑dimensional “Home Interspace” that feels instantly familiar. Building on user workshops and object‑based prototyping, the project translates domestic metaphors into hand‑tracked, room‑mapped XR artefacts. The accompanying Interspace interaction system dynamically scales controls around the user’s hand movements, replacing haptics with context‑aware visual and audio cues. Comparative user tests showed the skeuomorphic environment cut cognitive load, accelerated task completion and was overwhelmingly preferred to conventional floating‑window UIs. By bridging known physical affordances with the advanced capacity of spatial computing, the thesis proposes a scalable design language that lowers entry barriers to XR and charts a humane roadmap for future spatial operating systems.