Responses by Active Theory.

Background: Nutu.re is an immersive, multiplayer 3-D experience that enables fans to discover key singles off of electronica musician Porter Robinson’s highly anticipated upcoming album nurture. Built for Porter fans, the experience lets users listen to his latest album while exploring environments alongside other listeners around the world. The site houses two singles: “Get Your Wish” and “Something Comforting.”

Design core: The site focuses on two different 3-D environments, which each visually represent a track. When users enter the site, they are placed in a lobby with different windows into which they can dive and explore these worlds.

By connecting users in real-time, there is a purpose in exploring the space together. The songs, which play in a loop in the background, are synced up for all users in the experience—further adding to the sense of connection. A cylindrical zone in each environment triggers the ability for users to write and draw messages to one another when they both enter. Subtle touches like these add some magic and whimsy to the experience.

The design for the website was directly inspired by the art for nurture. The scribbling stylization of the avatar—a white line that users can navigate with to explore the environments and write to one another—comes directly from the album’s art cover, and the environments for the songs draw from their respective music videos.

Favorite details: Fans can explore the site with Porter himself. While the typical avatar is a white line, Porter’s recorded avatar has its own stylization that blinks black and white, letting users instantly recognize him. There are also triggers in each environment that change the scenery into hidden stylizations, but we’ll leave those a mystery for users to discover for themselves.

The sense of connection is also enhanced by the ability to find out what country the user you’re connected with is from. Since release, we’ve been touched to see many fans express how meaningful the connections made on this site have been to them in a time of uncertainty and loneliness.

Challenges: Creating an experience that engages a user in a solo experience, as well as two users exploring in multiplayer mode. Considering we weren’t building a game and had limited time—as the site had to launch along with the release of the music—we had to be smart about building a single flow for both experiences.

Navigation structure: There are two aspects of the site navigation that are important to consider: first, the actual movement of the avatar itself, and second, the navigation between environments. For avatar control, we wanted to make it minimal while still giving some direction, which is why a navigation tutorial pops up when you enter the site. On desktop, users are prompted to use keyboard arrow keys or WASD keys to move, like in computer games—which is a natural interaction for many users. On mobile, a joystick appears, leveraging users’ familiarity with gaming to bring some familiarity to an otherwise unfamiliar experience.

In terms of navigating between environments, the use of windows was most intuitive, and users can find their way out of an environment easily because an exit portal appears at a given boundary line. Since navigation is what drives this experience, we wanted to make it intuitive for users to give them the freedom to explore.