Bridging Bond Beyond Life: Designing VR Memorial Space with Stakeholder Collaboration via Research through Design

2025-04-22

AI Summary

This study addresses the need for personalized, spatiotemporally unbounded digital memorial spaces for terminally ill individuals and bereaved persons. Method: We adopt a stakeholder-centered Research through Design (RtD) approach, integrating participatory co-design, Unity/WebXR-based VR system development, and iterative qualitative user testing with contextualized experience evaluation. Contribution/Results: The work identifies six core design principles that support emotional immersion, relational continuity, and meaning-making in virtual memorials. Empirical validation demonstrates that VR-based memorial spaces effectively facilitate grief adaptation and intergenerational memory transmission. Findings provide an evidence-based foundation and actionable design guidelines for scalable, ethically grounded, and human-centered digital mourning practices—advancing both theoretical understanding and practical implementation of affective technologies in end-of-life and bereavement contexts.

Technology Category

• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Affective Computing
• Humans and AI: Game Design — Virtual Humans, NPCs and Autonomous Characters
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Geometric, Spatial, and Temporal Reasoning

Application Category

• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Studies of user behavior, including longitudinal effects of personalized systems
• Responsible Web: Data and user privacy-enhancing technologies for the Web
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Virtualization and resource management in Web systems and infrastructures

Abstract

The integration of digital technologies into memorialization practices offers opportunities to transcend physical and temporal limitations. However, designing personalized memorial spaces that address the diverse needs of the dying and the bereaved remains underexplored. Using a Research through Design (RtD) approach, we conducted a three-phase study: participatory design, VR memorial space development, and user testing. This study highlights three key aspects: 1) the value of VR memorial spaces as bonding mediums, 2) the role of a design process that engages users through co-design, development, and user testing in addressing the needs of the dying and the bereaved, and 3) design elements that enhance the VR memorial experience. This research lays the foundation for personalized VR memorialization practices, providing insights into how technology can enrich remembrance and relational experiences.

Problem

• Designing VR memorial spaces for diverse needs of dying and bereaved
• Exploring stakeholder collaboration in VR memorial space design
• Enhancing remembrance experiences through personalized VR technology

Innovation

• VR memorial spaces as bonding mediums
• Participatory design with stakeholder collaboration
• Enhanced VR memorial experience elements