Acknowledgments

This book was created by finding balance. Between day and night, between coffee and tea, between teaching and learning, between researching and creating, between physical and digital, and between what is and what is possible.

Balancing every word that is written on these pages are images of great examples of extended reality and 3D modeling. To the designers and XR adopters pushing the boundaries of this industry, thank you for sharing your work and your vision to grow the knowledge of eager minds. The future of this industry will be what it is because of your contributions.

Writing this book truly would not have been possible without my partner in life—thank you, Brian, for supporting my every crazy idea and dream. For offsetting my need to be present with my words by supporting the needs of our family, even after coming home after a 24-hour shift. I am so grateful for you and for being my true balance.

To Téa, my daughter, and my favorite bookworm. Thank you for always testing new AR apps with me and creating ways to add a bit of magic into our reality every day.

To Rio, my son, and one of the best problem-solvers I know. Thank you for all the hours playing with Legos and for sharing your inventions with me to expand my view on the world of 3D.

To my dad, for bringing me to work when I was younger and letting me imagine and design houses alongside you, even octagonal ones. To my mom, for asking me for creative ways to teach qualitative and quantitative research methods to make the concepts more approachable, and sometimes even edible.

To Mammy and Pappy for your endless support and guidance.

To my students. This book was inspired from every day spent in the classroom with you.

To my colleagues at the Newhouse School, who support my creative research and are doing amazing things to help advance the field of visual communications. Especially to Bruce Strong, for always believing in me and encouraging me to write more books.

To my research assistants: Paula Nelson, for your keen visual eye and impeccable attention to detail, and Francesca Ortega, for your passion in XR and pushing the bounds of how it can be used for social impact.

To the teachers and trailblazers I have been influenced by in my career. Your paths helped clear the way for others to walk further.

That leads me to thank the amazing team at Pearson for your guidance, support, and creation of this book: Margaret Anderson, for keeping my priorities, thoughts, and ideas in order. John Ray, for your insight to introduce this book as well as your technologist and developer’s perspective and guidance weaved throughout every page. Linda Laflamme, for correcting every misuse of the comma and em dash. Tracey Croom, for truly bringing this book to life. Laura Norman, for always having the answer to my questions before I even had to ask them and for supporting my ideas as they evolved into this book.