Brianna Lowe

Project Summary

“Positive distraction” is defined as “an environmental feature that elicits positive feelings and holds attention without taxing or stressing the individual, thereby blocking worrisome thoughts.” It is an engaged yet relaxed state of attention.

The Positive Distraction Therapy (PDT) games aim to reduce stress and anxiety in users in clinical settings. Through light gameplay, beautiful 3d environments, and calming, repetitive gameplay, users will be lulled into a calm state of mind

Duration: February 2017- December 2020

My Role

  Led product strategy, UX design, and research synthesis. Collaborated closely with clinicians,  designers and engineers to define MVP, prioritize features, and validate usability in clinical context.

My Deliverables:

• Led product strategy, adaptive game design, and user research synthesis
• Developed the adaptive gameplay engine and real-time feedback logic
• Oversaw narrative and interaction design across multiple VR/tablet titles (e.g., Bubble Bloom, Enchanted Forest, Aurora)
• Directed collaboration with clinicians, audio engineers, and AI teams to shape user-responsive content
• Contributed to scientific validation and therapeutic framework alignment

Tools Used:

• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Illustrator
• Unity game engine

Business Goal

  The  Positive Distraction Therapy (PDT) games was developed to create immersive, adaptive games that reduce anxiety and promote relaxation in pediatric and adult healthcare settings. By leveraging real-time biometric feedback, flow theory, and accessible interaction models, PDT aimed to offer non-pharmacological interventions that could be deployed across clinical and home environments—supporting emotional regulation, distraction during treatment, and enhanced patient well-being.  

  1. Designing Interaction for Varied Physical Abilities

• Challenge: Creating VR interactivity that felt natural and immersive without excluding users with limited mobility.
• What We Did: Adopted a hybrid input model combining gaze-based interaction (for low-mobility users) and controller input (for users who could engage physically), enabling a broader range of accessibility and personalization.
• Key Trade-Off: Placing interactive objects required careful positioning to accommodate variations in user height, reach, and orientation.

2. Preventing Motion Sickness in VR

• Challenge: Avoiding VR-induced discomfort like nausea and disorientation in young or sensitive users.
• What We Did: Restricted most experiences to stationary setups and used gentle scene movement or teleportation navigation to reduce sensory mismatch.
• Result: Created calming yet immersive environments without compromising user comfort.

3. Tablet Platform Limitations

• Challenge: Tablets proved physically cumbersome for pediatric users—heavy, two-handed, and difficult to navigate for small hands or motor-challenged users.
• What We Did: Optimized interface design for low-friction interaction, ensuring large touch targets and minimal hand movement. Navigation was refined to work smoothly even in one-handed or held-flat orientations.

4. Clinical Trial Disruption Due to COVID-19

• Challenge: A randomized clinical trial with 120 pediatric patients at Scarborough and Rouge Hospital was paused due to pandemic restrictions, halting critical data collection on therapeutic efficacy.
• Impact: Delayed validation efforts and implementation timelines.
• Mitigation: Used this pause to refine gameplay, prepare future trial protocols, and enhance adaptive logic based on early pilot feedback.

5. Real-Time Adaptivity Was Technically Complex

• Challenge: Creating AI-driven adaptive gameplay that could dynamically adjust difficulty and stimuli based on user engagement was complex to calibrate and optimize across games.
• What We Did: Developed a biometric feedback loop collecting 2,400–5,000 data points per session, enabling content to scale up/down in real time—e.g., more fairies or animals when engagement dropped, reduced input frequency during overstimulation.

6. Balancing Therapeutic Goals with Playfulness

• Challenge: Ensuring that gameplay remained calming, meditative, and non-goal-oriented, while still giving users a sense of agency and reward.
• Solution: Designed games around non-competitive, sensory exploration mechanics (e.g., raking sand, lighting torches, catching fairies) that scale with user energy rather than pushing for linear “wins.”

Next Steps

While the PDT project is currently shelved, the insights gained around adaptive gameplay, accessible interaction, and therapeutic flow continue to inform ongoing development across new clinical VR and digital therapy initiatives. The research, design patterns, and user engagement strategies developed here are actively shaping the next generation of immersive health interventions.