Design for Emerging Media: How MR Designers Think About Storytelling, Process, and Defining the Field

Given mixed reality’s (MR) unique status as an emerging medium that incorporates both the physical and the virtual in hybrid space, it is a particularly interesting field in which to study the design process as a whole, and interactive narrative design in particular. How prominently does story figure in MR design? What kinds of stories are being told? As MR tools become more accessible, the field is opening up to a wider variety of practitioners. However, the full breadth of methods and techniques being brought to bear in design for MR has not yet been studied. This paper presents findings from an interview study with fifteen leading MR designers, and describes the multiplicity of approaches they use. These approaches are presented as a matrix, composed of a opportunistic—deterministic spectrum (based on designs planned in advance vs. improvisation), and a storytelling—sensationalizing spectrum (based on designs aimed at narrative creation vs. development of a sensory experience).