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Human Scale: An Architect’s Path to VR with Aishwarya Balagopal
Aishwarya Balagopal traces her path from architecture into creative
technology, starting with an early fascination for how people move
through (and feel inside) spaces. After growing up in Mumbai and later
studying façade design at the University of Southern California, she
talks about how “human factors” in the built environment—scale, light,
material, and perception—became the foundation for how she now thinks
about immersive experiences.
From there, the conversation follows her pivot into UX and then XR/VR
during the COVID era, when she wanted a creative outlet that still
aligned with her strengths as a spatial thinker. She breaks down why
architecture skills can translate well to immersive design: comfort with 3D
thinking, attention to proportion and sightlines, and a habit of
designing for real-world constraints. She also shares lessons from
building XR work for cultural and museum contexts, where storytelling,
accessibility, and “presence” matter as much as polish.
The second half goes deep on VR as a practical learning medium.
Aishwarya discusses her work with Virtual Apprentice on workforce
training—especially scenarios where embodied practice and repetition
matter (e.g., interpersonal dynamics and procedural training). She also
describes a research-driven project focused on
helping students with autism learn engineering concepts, and how that
thread led her toward building her own VR learning tool aimed at
supporting students with learning challenges.
Bio
Aishwarya Balagopal is the founder of Edlyxr and
a VR product designer and creative
technologist with a background in architecture and spatial design. Her
work spans immersive learning and training experiences, including VR
workforce education and museum-focused XR projects, and she brings an
architect’s attention to human perception, scale, and environment into
the design of 3D interfaces.
Links
Apprentice
Fiction
Contact
View all episodes
By Mike SubelskyAishwarya Balagopal traces her path from architecture into creative
technology, starting with an early fascination for how people move
through (and feel inside) spaces. After growing up in Mumbai and later
studying façade design at the University of Southern California, she
talks about how “human factors” in the built environment—scale, light,
material, and perception—became the foundation for how she now thinks
about immersive experiences.
From there, the conversation follows her pivot into UX and then XR/VR
during the COVID era, when she wanted a creative outlet that still
aligned with her strengths as a spatial thinker. She breaks down why
architecture skills can translate well to immersive design: comfort with 3D
thinking, attention to proportion and sightlines, and a habit of
designing for real-world constraints. She also shares lessons from
building XR work for cultural and museum contexts, where storytelling,
accessibility, and “presence” matter as much as polish.
The second half goes deep on VR as a practical learning medium.
Aishwarya discusses her work with Virtual Apprentice on workforce
training—especially scenarios where embodied practice and repetition
matter (e.g., interpersonal dynamics and procedural training). She also
describes a research-driven project focused on
helping students with autism learn engineering concepts, and how that
thread led her toward building her own VR learning tool aimed at
supporting students with learning challenges.
Bio
Aishwarya Balagopal is the founder of Edlyxr and
a VR product designer and creative
technologist with a background in architecture and spatial design. Her
work spans immersive learning and training experiences, including VR
workforce education and museum-focused XR projects, and she brings an
architect’s attention to human perception, scale, and environment into
the design of 3D interfaces.
Links
Apprentice
Fiction
Contact