Rain garden VR simulator

Water conservation is hard to picture, so it's easy to ignore.

Most people have limited exposure to solutions like rain gardens, and what exists rarely comes in a format that's easy to understand or remember. A rain garden captures stormwater runoff and filters it clean, preventing pollution and flooding and recharging groundwater. Showing that is far more convincing than describing it.

Players see the problem first, then fix it with their own hands, guided by a checklist that lives in the world.

1. See the stormRain falls on a neighborhood with no conservation measures, causing erosion, flooding and pollution.
2. Measure the roofPoint and click to measure the roof. A rain garden should be about 15–30% of its area.
3. Redirect the waterTake off the lower downspout and move it so stormwater flows toward the garden.
4. Plant the gardenDig, design and plant, then watch the garden catch the next rain.

I started with sketches of the whole flow, then built it in Unity across two prototypes. Every step uses a controller interaction that matches the real-world action, so the lesson is learned by doing.

• A clipboard you holdThe checklist lives on a clipboard. Each step unlocks only after the last one is done, so no step is a guess.
• Point to measureRaycasting turns the controller into a measuring tool for the roof.
• Snap into placeThe downspout is a grabbable that snaps into its new position, like the real fitting.
• TeleportTeleporting moves you around the yard one step at a time.

When time got tight, I chose the checklist logic over polishing highlight states. A lesson that runs end to end teaches more than a perfect first step.

Readable, inclusive and steady.

• High-contrast textInstructions stay legible against a bright, busy garden.
• Color-blind-safe UII corrected the interface colors so progress never depends on telling red from green.
• Hands without identityThe player's hands are blue, with no set gender or race, so anyone can see themselves in the role.
• Nothing that makes you sickBackground trees rendered as billboards turned with your head, so I replaced them with hand-placed models. I also cut a tall, swaying grass for a calm lawn.

Also designed: text to speech for instructions, automatic on the first screen and on tap for each checklist item, plus volume control from the main screen.