Research Based Critical Essay
Research through Design Inquiries into Embodied Cognition, Perception, and Human–Technology Experience
2015 – Present
©️ 2022–2026 Binna Lee. All rights reserved
A framework for embodied interaction design — connecting cognitive science, spatial UX, and XR systems. Forthcoming publication, 2027.
Case Studies – Work
My current writing is not presented as a completed empirical study, but as a Research through Design inquiry. It develops a position through embodied experience, theoretical references, and design practice, while opening a foundation for future scholarly research.
FEATURED
Keynote | Embodied · Spatial Cognition · XR/AI | RCA · 2026
Insight Realm:
︎Keynote Slide for Public
︎Royal College of Art, Immersive Act 2026
Presents a 10-year research through design trajectory connecting emotional intelligence, embodied cognition, and XR interaction design — culminating in the Perception Box framework as a tool for recalibrating cognitive agency through spatial experience.
The theoretical references are shared academic foundations, but the way I translate them into an XR design framework, spatial interaction model, and research-through-design trajectory is my original authorship.
Slide deck available upon request — for research, teaching, or collaboration. binnalee82@gmail.com
Insight Realm:
Externalizing the Internal through Embodied XR
︎Keynote Slide for Public
︎Royal College of Art, Immersive Act 2026
Presents a 10-year research through design trajectory connecting emotional intelligence, embodied cognition, and XR interaction design — culminating in the Perception Box framework as a tool for recalibrating cognitive agency through spatial experience.
The theoretical references are shared academic foundations, but the way I translate them into an XR design framework, spatial interaction model, and research-through-design trajectory is my original authorship.
Slide deck available upon request — for research, teaching, or collaboration. binnalee82@gmail.com
Research | Child Safety · XR UX | XRSI · 2025
Research on Impacts of XR UX/UI Design in Child & Youth XR Experience
Contributed research to the XR Safety Initiative (XRSI) Child Standard Initiative — examining how spatial interface design decisions in XR affect child cognition, emotional safety, and developmental outcomes. Part of an industry-level standards effort for responsible XR design.
WRITING & TALKS
Talk | XR Guild | 04.2026
A talk presenting XR not as a representational window but as an active system that reorganizes perception, emotion, and behavior. Introduces Insight Realm as a spatial externalization of psychological architectures — cognitive biases and emotional spirals made navigable through embodied interaction.
XR as a Cognitive Interface
A talk presenting XR not as a representational window but as an active system that reorganizes perception, emotion, and behavior. Introduces Insight Realm as a spatial externalization of psychological architectures — cognitive biases and emotional spirals made navigable through embodied interaction.
Lecture | Embodied Cognition · XR Affordance | 11.2025
Reframing Affordance Through Embodiment and Spatial Cognition
Traditional UX affordance models — built for 2D interfaces — break down in XR. This piece argues for an ecological model of affordance: one grounded in how bodies perceive, move, and construct meaning in space, not just how users click through signifiers.
Presented at XREAL XR–AI Symposium, Seoul National University
Reframing Affordance Through Embodiment and Spatial Cognition
Traditional UX affordance models — built for 2D interfaces — break down in XR. This piece argues for an ecological model of affordance: one grounded in how bodies perceive, move, and construct meaning in space, not just how users click through signifiers.
Presented at XREAL XR–AI Symposium, Seoul National University
Substack | Systems · Embodied Agency | 02.2026
The Architecture of Stagnation:
A cross-cultural synthesis examining how built environments — from Lagos to post-imperial Seoul — acclimate behavior and constrain agency. Applies the embodied cognition framework to systemic design, arguing that the body is the first site of resistance.
The Architecture of Stagnation:
A Thematic Synthesis on Systemic Containers and Autonomous Praxis
A cross-cultural synthesis examining how built environments — from Lagos to post-imperial Seoul — acclimate behavior and constrain agency. Applies the embodied cognition framework to systemic design, arguing that the body is the first site of resistance.
Writing | Antaeus AR | Identity · XR · Social Design | 7.2025
Reflections on Persona, Presence, and Performativity in Virtual Spaces
Featured in Antaeus AR (Spatial Computing publication)
Featured in Antaeus AR. Examines how avatars and performative XR contexts actively shape identity and behavior — connecting Goffman's self-presentation theory, the Proteus Effect, and Enclothed Cognition to spatial interface design. Argues that XR designers are not just building environments — they are curating the conditions under which identity forms.
Reflections on Persona, Presence, and Performativity in Virtual Spaces
Featured in Antaeus AR (Spatial Computing publication)
Featured in Antaeus AR. Examines how avatars and performative XR contexts actively shape identity and behavior — connecting Goffman's self-presentation theory, the Proteus Effect, and Enclothed Cognition to spatial interface design. Argues that XR designers are not just building environments — they are curating the conditions under which identity forms.
Writing | Child Development · Embodied Play | 10.2025
Written in response to IDEO's piece on LEGO's digital experience initiative. Argues — using developmental psychology research (Piaget, Vygotsky, Barsalou) — that 3D embodied interaction is not a supplement to digital design but its developmental foundation. A case for why sensorimotor-grounded design principles should drive, not follow, digital product decisions for children.
Medium & Linkedin Article
Why 3D Interaction and Embodied Play Matter in Early Childhood Developmen
Written in response to IDEO's piece on LEGO's digital experience initiative. Argues — using developmental psychology research (Piaget, Vygotsky, Barsalou) — that 3D embodied interaction is not a supplement to digital design but its developmental foundation. A case for why sensorimotor-grounded design principles should drive, not follow, digital product decisions for children.
Medium & Linkedin Article
Writing | Accessibility · AI · XR | 07.2025
A reflection from XR Access 2025 (Cornell Tech). Accessibility constraints in XR are not edge cases — they surface the core assumptions of spatial interaction design and reveal where embodied diversity demands a fundamental rethinking of the interface.
Medium
Seeing Through Constraint: What Accessibility Reveals About Design in AI & XR
A reflection from XR Access 2025 (Cornell Tech). Accessibility constraints in XR are not edge cases — they surface the core assumptions of spatial interaction design and reveal where embodied diversity demands a fundamental rethinking of the interface.
Medium
Podcast | 05.2025
A conversation on self-fidelity, emotional loops, and psychosocial dynamics in hyper-mediated environments. Explored how algorithmic systems reshape self-perception — and what it means to design with rather than against that reality.
Podcast Guest: Designing Authenticity — The Algorithmic Self | Decoded, Ch. 5.0
A conversation on self-fidelity, emotional loops, and psychosocial dynamics in hyper-mediated environments. Explored how algorithmic systems reshape self-perception — and what it means to design with rather than against that reality.
RESEARCH INITIATIVES & COMMUNITY PRACTICE
Co-organized with Munus Shih (Pratt Institute) | 11.2025 – 01.2026
A faculty-led open forum bringing together designers, technologists, artists, and educators to explore critical questions in design and technology. Served as Epistemic Framework Lead — designing the conceptual architecture for Vol. 2: Embodiment Lab, a session structured around embodied cognition and experiential learning as knowledge production rather than information transfer.
Praxis — Symposium-Lab for Embodied and Experiential Learning
A faculty-led open forum bringing together designers, technologists, artists, and educators to explore critical questions in design and technology. Served as Epistemic Framework Lead — designing the conceptual architecture for Vol. 2: Embodiment Lab, a session structured around embodied cognition and experiential learning as knowledge production rather than information transfer.
Founder & Host | 2025 – Present
Monthly inquiry series on embodied cognition, perception, and human agency at the intersection of design, technology, and education.
Salon Talk
Monthly inquiry series on embodied cognition, perception, and human agency at the intersection of design, technology, and education.
Parsons School of Design · 02–03.2025
Workshop series at Parsons Design & Technology — XR Prototyping with Ordinary Objects, and Bezi: AI Agent for Game Design in Unity.
Dorkshops: XR Prototyping & AI Game Design
Workshop series at Parsons Design & Technology — XR Prototyping with Ordinary Objects, and Bezi: AI Agent for Game Design in Unity.