Behind the scenes: how we designed the six VR scenarios

04 / 06 Behind the Project

Creating an immersive experience that is both emotionally resonant and pedagogically sound is harder than it looks. Here is what went into building the VR scenarios at the heart of VR Balance.

When we set out to design the virtual reality component of VR Balance, we faced a question that was deceptively simple: what should people feel when they put on the headset?

Not uncomfortable for the sake of it. Not manipulated into an emotional response. We wanted something more honest than that — and more useful. We wanted participants to encounter situations they might recognise: from their own past behaviour, from conversations they had witnessed, from dynamics they had perhaps never questioned. And we wanted them to encounter those situations from the inside.

The starting point: real experiences

The scripts for the six scenarios were not invented from scratch. They were grounded in the lived experiences of women — in workplaces, at home, in everyday interactions that individually might seem minor, but that collectively define a pattern. The researchers and experts at the University of Barcelona, many of whom have spent decades working on gender health and equality, brought that knowledge into the room.

The process was co-creative. Women who had experienced discrimination, micro-aggressions, and structural barriers contributed to the writing. What came out was not a worst-case parade, but a set of recognisable, ordinary moments — the kind that happen in offices and kitchens all over Europe, every day.

The six scenarios

01A job interview in which a female candidate is asked about her plans regarding family or children — a question that no male candidate is asked, and whose implicit message is clear: your ambition and your biology are in conflict.

02An expectant mother in the workplace who is denied a promotion and unable to secure a flexible schedule — encountering the "maternal wall" that so many women describe, where pregnancy becomes a professional liability.

03A woman who arrives home after a full working day to find household chores waiting while her partner, who also works, relaxes — a depiction of the double workday in its most familiar form.

04A pregnant woman speaking with her parents about how she will manage work, childcare, and household responsibilities — and the weight of others' expectations about what she should prioritise.

05A transgender woman in a customer-facing role encountering discrimination — bringing visibility to the intersecting challenges faced by trans women in professional environments.

06A non-binary individual navigating adversity across different social environments — recognising that gender-based discrimination takes different forms for different people.

The production process

Each scenario was built as a fully scripted, filmed production, converted into software compatible with Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, and Meta Quest Pro headsets. The goal was realism: staging, lighting, dialogue, and pacing all designed to feel like something you might actually witness, not a stylised dramatisation.

The MetaMedicsVR team — including 3D artists, a lead VR developer, and an AI and VR developer — worked throughout Work Package 3 to build and refine the technical experience. Prototypes were sent to partners in all three countries for testing before the final versions were delivered for the pilot course in Spain.

Accessibility was a design requirement from the start. The experiences needed to work for a broad range of participants, including those with no prior VR experience — executives in their 50s and medical students in their 20s alike.

What happens after the headset comes off

The scenarios are not the end of the experience. They are the opening of a conversation. Each VR session is embedded within Workshop 3 of the VR Balance course, followed by structured facilitation — a space for participants to process what they experienced, connect it to their own lives and workplaces, and explore what change might look like in practice.

In our experience, the most important moment is not the immersion itself. It is the silence immediately afterward — and what people choose to say into it.