Virtual Therapy Lab
Creative technology
In 2021, I joined an international Tietoevry team building Virtual Therapy Lab with Latvia's Adolescent and Youth Psychotherapy Centre. I became the project's de facto main designer and worked across the VR interaction design, UX, Unity development, multiplayer system, 3D environments and avatars.
A shared room for remote therapy
The project began during the pandemic, when young people needed access to mental-health support but ordinary video calls could not reproduce many of the activities used in a therapy room. Virtual Therapy Lab created a shared three-dimensional environment where a young person and a therapist could meet as avatars, handle objects, draw in 3D and work through activities together.
Designing and developing the experience
I did not have a formal design-lead title, but I became the main designer in practice. I was also instrumental in developing the VR interactions and their UX, then implementing much of that work in Unity. I designed and built the rooms, modelled the environments and characters, and created the character-customisation options. Participants could choose an avatar's gender and mood, move between rooms, handle blocks and other objects, and draw directly in three-dimensional space.
I handled the real-time multiplayer implementation using Photon. The other developer focused mainly on backend-specific functions, including synchronising video between clients. Together, this work connected an Oculus Quest application for the person in VR with a native Windows viewer for the therapist, allowing both participants to follow and interact within the same session.
Working across three countries
The team worked across Latvia, Norway and Finland, combining psychotherapy research with VR design and development. The collaboration required the digital rooms and interactions to reflect the specialists' clinical needs while remaining understandable to young people using the headset.
Tietoevry Latvia treated the lab as an important internal project and later recognised my contribution to the work.
From prototype to public pilot
The lab received national attention while it was being developed. LTV7 broadcast a report about it in May 2021, and Tietoevry launched a clinical study in June under the supervision of mental-health professionals.
The project moved from its first experimental phase into clinical research and was later presented in Latvia's pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai and at Arab Health 2022. Its clinical effect was still being studied, and I do not have treatment outcomes that I can attribute to the product.
International project by Tietoevry and Latvia's Adolescent and Youth Psychotherapy Centre, 2021. I contributed from Norway as the de facto main designer and Unity developer, working with team members in Latvia and Finland.