GOOD DESIGN AWARD WINNER:
YOUR VISION. OUR FUTURE.
Using mixed reality to turn South Australia’s long-term transport strategy into a future people could explore, understand and help shape.
Client: Department for Infrastructure and Transport, with KPMG
Location: South Australia
THE CHALLENGE
A travelling XR experience on SA’s transport future
Transport strategies involve complex decisions about how communities move, connect and grow over decades.
Working with KPMG and South Australia’s Department for Infrastructure and Transport, the challenge was to make those ideas clear and relevant to a broad public audience, while creating a consultation tool that could travel across both metropolitan and regional communities.
The experience needed to simplify complex policy thinking without oversimplifying the decisions behind it.
THE IMMERSIVE IDEA
A digital twin that changed with each person’s priorities
Participants began by ranking five values in order of importance: Safety, Sustainability, Connectivity, Prosperity and Liveability.
Those choices were then carried into a mixed reality experience, where a dynamic 3D diorama of Adelaide’s CBD adapted to reflect their individual priorities.
A team of 3D artists built the digital twin, then created multiple versions of it, each reflecting a different combination of the five values. With five priorities that can be ranked in any order, the possible combinations were effectively endless.
Across City, Suburban, Regional and Industrial zones, the future changed around them, turning abstract preferences into something tangible they could see and explore.
WHY XR?
Making long-term choices visible in mixed reality
Long-term infrastructure planning can be difficult to understand through reports, surveys or diagrams alone.
Mixed reality brought the strategy into the participant’s physical space, allowing them to walk around the model and see how different priorities could influence the future transport network.
Instead of simply selecting what mattered to them, participants could experience what those choices might mean.
INSIDE THE EXPERIENCE
A survey that unlocked a personalised city in the headset
Participants first completed a short survey on a website, learning about the initiative and setting their priorities, then entered the code they were given into the headset.
Inside Meta Quest, their personalised city floated in front of them in passthrough, a 3D diorama they could reach out, grab and spin. Using natural hand tracking, they could switch between City, Suburban, Regional and Industrial zones. As their priorities reshaped each one, traffic, trains, buses and cars changed too, and voiceover explained what they were seeing.
The standalone setup required no controllers or external computers, making the experience intuitive for first-time users and easy to deploy across multiple consultation locations.
THE IMPACT
Helping communities shape a 30-year transport strategy
More than 6,000 people experienced the mixed reality activation, with many more contributing through the online experience.
The project reached communities across metropolitan and regional South Australia, with participant feedback contributing to the final 30-Year Transport Strategy.
Beyond gathering responses, the experience demonstrated how immersive technology can make civic consultation more tangible, helping people better understand long-term planning while giving them a more active role in shaping it.
Let’s Build Something Bold Together
At Catalyst VR, we specialise in helping organisations turn complex ideas into simple, unforgettable immersive experiences. Whether it’s engaging future engineers at an airshow or transforming your product into an interactive demo, our team is ready to bring your vision to life through expert Virtual Reality Development and strategic Virtual Reality Marketing.
Ready to explore what’s possible in VR?
Let’s talk.
