Ye He
I am a UX designer focusing on VR and emotional interaction. My project Balanceverse explores how immersive environments can reduce stigma and support recovery in eating disorders. I am seeking roles in digital health and immersive design.
I am a UX designer focusing on VR and emotional interaction. My project Balanceverse explores how immersive environments can reduce stigma and support recovery in eating disorders. I am seeking roles in digital health and immersive design.
Balanceverse is a VR peer-support experience designed for individuals recovering from eating disorders. The project addresses the challenges of self-stigma and limited social support by comparing two modes of interaction: non-verbal expression and structured conversation. Developed through user research and iterative prototyping, the system was tested with participants who practice controlled eating behaviours. Findings showed that non-verbal interaction provided greater emotional relief and reduced social pressure, while structured dialogue offered stability and predictability. Together, these insights highlight the potential of hybrid VR systems that combine freedom with structure, helping to foster psychological safety, reduce stigma, and support emotional wellbeing in recovery contexts.
Challenge:
Individuals recovering from eating disorders often become isolated due to self-stigmatisation and a lack of social support.
Dilemma:
In-person peer support is constrained by appearance anxiety, while online communities are prone to creating echo chambers.
Opportunity:
VR offers an immersive, secure private space that may reduce social pressure and support recovery.
I followed a design thinking approach to structure my process. Starting with interviews, I identified user needs and mapped gaps using a known–unknown matrix. I shaped assumptions about who, what, where, and how the system should work, and organised insights through affinity mapping. These steps helped me transform research into clear design directions.
I conducted semi-structured interviews with proxy users—individuals who practise strict dietary control in fitness or diet-focused contexts—as they share body image concerns and food-related anxiety similar to eating disorder patients, while avoiding the ethical risks of recruiting clinical participants
Through semi-structured interviews with proxy users, I identified five key insights that guided the prototype design. Users emphasised the need for safe, non-judgmental spaces where emotional safety matters more than advice. They valued emotional resonance between avatars and environments, preferring interactions that feel responsive and meaningful rather than scripted. Symbolic and visual expression, such as colour and motion, was seen as more intuitive than words. Finally, providing users with control and autonomy in how they connect and express themselves helped reduce social anxiety. These insights directly shaped the two prototype directions: non-verbal interaction and structured conversation.
Users express emotions through emojis, bubble-popping, and music/colour activities, creating a low-pressure and playful way to relieve anxiety.
Users engage with guided prompts, cooperative puzzle tasks, and colour creation, offering stability, clarity, and a sense of being understood.
Following two rounds of testing—formative testing and flight testing—I completed the design of the high-fidelity prototype: Environment: Underwater World.
This prototype allows users to express emotions through emojis, bubble-popping, and musical interactions in a 360° underwater world. It offers a playful, low-pressure way to release anxiety and feel supported without relying on words.
This prototype uses guided prompts, collaborative puzzles, and colour-based emotion tasks to create meaningful dialogue in VR. It provides stability and clarity, helping users feel understood and connected in a safe environment.
I designed this study as a within-subjects controlled experiment with 20 proxy users who had experience with self-controlled dietary behaviours. Each participant tested both VR prototypes in a counterbalanced order to minimise learning effects. The process began with an emotional review scale, followed by a system introduction and immersion in the underwater sanctuary. Participants then interacted with Prototype A and Prototype B, completing tasks and two games in each condition. Afterward, they filled in the System Usability Scale, emotional review scales, and answered open-ended questions. For analysis, I used descriptive statistics, normality tests, paired t-tests or Wilcoxon tests depending on data distribution, and calculated effect sizes. I also thematically analysed qualitative feedback to complement the quantitative results.
I measured usability using the System Usability Scale for both prototypes. The results showed that both achieved good usability, with Prototype A slightly higher but no significant difference overall.
I compared emotional change scores between the two prototypes. Prototype A produced significantly greater emotional relief, confirming that non-verbal interaction is more effective for reducing social pressure and supporting immediate regulation.
I analysed participants’ feedback thematically and identified three main themes: instant relief, differences between modes, and extended behavioural impact. These insights helped me understand how VR peer support can work in both the moment and over time.
I found that non-verbal interaction reduced pressure and felt more natural, while structured dialogue offered stability but sometimes felt rigid. Most participants preferred the freedom of non-verbal expression, though a minority valued the predictability of structured conversation.
The findings highlight the importance of offering low-pressure non-verbal modes in VR peer-support systems to reduce social anxiety and encourage natural emotional release. At the same time, providing structured conversational prompts ensures clarity, predictability, and long-term stability. A hybrid approach that allows flexible switching between the two modes can better meet users’ daily emotional needs and create safer, more personalised support experiences.
This project shows the potential of VR as a tool for reducing stigma and supporting emotional wellbeing in eating disorder recovery. Future studies should extend this approach to clinical user groups and test with longer-term engagement to validate its therapeutic value. Integrating physiological data (e.g., heart rate, skin conductance) and richer natural environments could further strengthen the evidence base and advance research into digital health interventions.
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