I've been fascinated by marketing since university—specifically the psychology behind human behavior.
Why do people make the decisions they do?
What triggers action?
How do you persuade without being manipulative?
Back in 2017, I had an insight that completely changed my direction:
VR and immersive experiences are the future of marketing because they tap into human psychology on a deeper level than flat ads ever could.
I shared the idea with people around me. Most didn’t get it.
But I couldn’t unsee it.
The Pivot to Code
Eventually I realized something important:
If I wanted to build these immersive experiences, I had to learn how to code.
So I did the only thing that made sense: I moved from my desk job in Australia, then traveled across Asia. I taught English online to support myself while studying programming in every spare moment.
Like many beginners, I got trapped by the “Learn JavaScript in 1 Month” YouTube videos.
Spoiler: that wasn’t happening.
So I reset. I took Harvard’s CS50 and followed Eloquent JS, learned the fundamentals properly, and eventually got comfortable building sites with React and Next.js.
I enjoyed it—but something still felt missing.
The "Aha!" Moment: WebXR
Then it clicked:
VR marketing.
The old idea returned, but this time I had real programming skills.
So I asked the obvious question:
Can I actually build these experiences now?
A short deep dive later, the answer was clear:
Yes.
With tools like Three.js, React Three Fiber, WebXR, and modern browsers, immersive experiences are becoming native to the web.
And JavaScript is at the center of it.
Why I'm All In
I realized I’m positioned perfectly at this intersection:
Psychology: I understand what makes experiences engaging, emotional, and memorable.
Engineering: My React/Next.js background gives me the technical foundation.
Creativity: VR lets me build worlds that people actually explore, not skip.
My goal:
To help move marketing from boring, interruptive ads → to immersive, interactive worlds people enjoy.
What's Next?
I’m dedicating the next 6 months to mastering Three.js and WebXR.
I’m not an expert. I’m a learner.
And I’m documenting the entire messy, challenging, exciting journey right here on dev.to.
I’ll be sharing:
Weekly devlogs of my VR/3D projects
Technical hurdles (and how I solve them)
My transition from 2D React dev → 3D creative developer
If you want to follow along, I post daily updates on Twitter: @peterridingdev
Let’s build the future of the web. 🚀
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