Prior Professional Work
Design Sprint · User Research · Emerging Technology
Designing a VR spiritual community for people searching for faith outside the walls of a church
In partnership with a regional synod and VR studio SolaceVR, Aditi co-led the design sprint, persona development, and three iterative rounds of usability testing to shape a faith-based metaverse experience targeting young adults, spiritual seekers, and communities disconnected from traditional religious spaces.
5
user personas developed to frame the experience
3
iterative rounds of usability testing on the live VR environment
15+
participants tested across diverse spiritual and gaming backgrounds
30wk
sprint-to-beta-launch timeline with SolaceVR
THE Situation
Religious participation among young adults is declining — not because people have lost interest in spirituality, but because traditional institutional forms aren't meeting them where they are. The NTNL Synod partnered with SolaceVR, a VR studio building faith-based virtual environments, to explore whether immersive technology could create a new kind of spiritual community: one that felt personal, low-pressure, and genuinely welcoming to people who had left church, never found one, or were simply looking for something different. The ELCA Innovation team acted as design facilitators — and Aditi led the research and design sprint work throughout.
Phases of Work
What research surfaced
01
Safety and privacy were non-negotiable
LGBTQ+ participants and those with past negative church experiences consistently needed visible signals of inclusion before engaging. Explicit affirmation — not just absence of exclusion — mattered.
02
The spiritual dashboard was the standout feature
The personalized wellness dashboard was described as the "wow factor" — but users pushed back on gamification framing. "Spirituality is not supposed to be something you level up" was a recurring critique.
03
The Explore Room resonated most
The ability to submit prayer requests virtually and connect with a minister in a low-pressure, outdoor-feeling space was consistently the highest-rated element. Users wanted deeper 1:1 access, not just ambient presence.
04
Casual entry points reduced spiritual anxiety
Participants who had left church or were exploring faith for the first time responded best to the lightest-touch spaces — debating "is cereal soup?" before discussing theology. The low-stakes on-ramp was essential.
Methods Used
Design sprint facilitation
Persona development
Participant recruitment & screening
Moderated usability testing
Think-aloud protocol
Iterative concept testing
Journey mapping
VR experience research
Insight synthesis
Outcome
Three rounds of testing directly shaped the environment SolaceVR built — from the room structure and dashboard design to the language used throughout and the decision to lead with casual community before spiritual depth. The project was among the earliest applications of structured human-centered design methods to a faith-based VR environment, and demonstrated that the people most worth designing for in this space — seekers, those who've been hurt by religion, those without community — have very specific and researchable needs.
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