Using Virtual Reality to Foster Creativity for Co-design a New Self-Expression and Relaxation Virtual Environment for Students

Virtual Reality (VR) may improve mental health through immersive self-expression and relaxing environments. However, co-design for these outcomes is challenging due to participants' limited experience with VR and unfamiliarity with self-expression and relaxation techniques. In this paper, we proposed VRelax, a virtual environment that will be designed to support stress relief through self-expression. We are using OpenBrush as a technology proof to provide participants with a self-expression VR experience before co-design sessions. Smartwatches and inertial sensors are used to collect heart rate and accelerometer data to evaluate participants' stress levels during VR experience. We hypothesize self-expressive VR experience will foster participants' creativity in designing relaxation environments, and the multimodal data collected could identify which parts of the VR experience are more relaxing or stressful. Our findings will have implications to improve the co-design sessions by using VR as a technology proof and improve the design of VR experiences for relaxation.