Award-winning XR interactive experience designed for mindful engagement

In the fall of 2024, as part of my senior capstone project at UConn, I explored how extended reality (XR) could revolutionize mental health care. Inspired by VR’s immersive potential and the growing need for accessible wellness tools, I envisioned a platform blending calming environments with interactive mindfulness exercises. Thus, Oasis XR was born. It serves as a space where users could find solace and clarity amidst the chaos of daily life.

This project has earn

Despite growing demand for mental health support, existing mindfulness platforms missed the mark. Users downloaded apps with good intentions but abandoned them within weeks. The problem wasn’t the number of options—it was the lack of genuine connection. Traditional meditation apps offered guided sessions and calming sounds but felt flat, like following instructions from a manual. People dealing with real anxiety needed more than background noise. They needed to feel transported, engaged, and understood.

I started with people. Through interviews with individuals managing anxiety and stress, I found patterns that data couldn’t reveal. One participant said, “I want to escape, but these apps just remind me I’m sitting in my bedroom staring at my phone.” That stuck with me. Users craved presence—the feeling of actually being somewhere else.

My competitive analysis showed that VR meditation experiences were often either too expensive, too sterile, or quickly lost novelty. The gap for an affordable, engaging, personalized XR wellness platform was wide open. Users emotionally connected to mindfulness practices were three times more likely to maintain them.