SONOMAP

Overview

SonoMap is an immersive virtual reality experience designed to explore and discover urban soundscapes across the city. The project combines spatial data, audio, and VR interaction to allow users to navigate and experience sound as a spatial and experiential layer of the urban environment.

Project context: Sónar + D / Institution: Barcelona Supercomputing Center 

Type: Dashboard / Maps / Data story / Scientific Visualization / AI explainability

My role: Interaction designer / UX

Duration: 3 months

Challenge 

The project was developed in an experimental research and visualization context, exploring the potential of virtual reality as a medium for urban sound exploration. Rather than a productivity tool, SonoMap focused on experience, immersion, and perception, targeting non-expert users and exploratory audiences.

The main challenge was to design an experience that felt immersive and intuitive in VR, without overwhelming users or breaking presence. In immersive environments, even small interaction issues can cause confusion, discomfort, or loss of engagement.

Given the exploratory nature of the project, the key UX risks were: Users struggling to understand how to navigate the space, interaction mechanics disrupting immersion, audio cues failing to align with spatial expectations.

UX Methodology

A lightweight, experience-focused UX approach was applied:

Guerrilla User Testing

1. Conducted guerrilla testing with users to quickly observe how they moved, explored, and reacted within the VR environment.

2. Focused on ease of navigation, spatial orientation, and perceived immersion rather than task completion.
   
   

Iterative Refinement

1. Adjusted interaction mechanics, movement cues, and spatial feedback based on observed user behavior.

2. Refined audio placement and visual guidance to strengthen the connection between sound and space.
   
   

This pragmatic approach allowed rapid improvements to the immersive experience without imposing heavy UX processes on an exploratory VR project.

Guerrilla user testing informed iterative refinements to navigation and spatial audio, improving immersion and usability in an exploratory VR experience.

Final outcome

The final experience enabled users to intuitively explore urban soundscapes in VR, maintaining immersion while providing enough guidance to support exploration. Guerrilla testing helped identify subtle friction points that could break presence, resulting in a smoother, more engaging spatial audio experience.

Link: SONOMAP