THE SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Under the provisions of the regulations for the degree
MASTER OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
on
Monday, April 21, 2025
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. EST
Teams Link:
Jiaze Yu
will present a thesis defense entitled,
"Virtual Reality “Space Agent” as a Socially Interactive Design Partner:
A Study of User Perception, Social Interaction, and Creative Engagement in Socially Interactive Virtual Environments"
Advisor:
Dr. Yixiao Wang, Georgia Tech School of Industrial Design
Committee:
Professor Tim Purdy, Georgia Tech School of Industrial Design
Dr. Yalong Yang, Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing
Faculty and students are invited to attend this presentation.
Abstract
While prior research has introduced the concept of Socially Interactive Virtual Environments (SIVEs), the ways in which these environments can support co-creative processes through socially expressive design remain underexplored. This thesis investigates how immersive VR environments can function as human-like design partners by responding to users with social presence, mutual awareness, and non-verbal feedback throughout the creative process. Building on previous work that employed a sphere-based SIVE, this study introduces a newly developed mist-based SIVE capable of ambient
communication through lighting, symbolic weather changes, and spatial cues.
Twelve participants took part in a structured design workshop followed by Wizard-of-Oz–based evaluation sessions, where they interacted with both SIVE versions across two creative design tasks: an open house activity and a small exhibition space. Thematic analysis, and interaction analysis were used to examine how participants perceived and engaged with each environment. Results indicate that ambient expressiveness and timely, non-verbal responses enhanced participants’ sense of collaboration and positively influenced their design thinking and creativity. The thesis concludes with design implications for future SIVE systems and a framework for supporting meaningful human-agent co-design in VR.