As the use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) is getting more and more popular, there is a need to discover the way to conduct the design process for VR/ AR experiences. Unlike other interfaces, it is a 3D form of presentation and there are more to consider when designing.
The field of view
Unlike normal devices, the field of view in VR/ AR can have unlimited frame of viewing. Technically, it can reach to the areas as long as your eyes and body can handle. Therefore, it really depends on what experience do we like to deliver. Human’s vision focuses are limited, it is recommended to avoid the low visionary areas on the left and right side near to the edge of our eyes when putting interfaces of major changes in the story line or utility pages such as “settings” or “menu” to ensure the user can reach to those functions with ease.
Safety
Safety is another consideration when designing for VR/ AR interfaces. Whether we would like the users to move around or not, and, how do we protect the user ‘s safety when positioning elements in the interface. For instance, adding guides or foot prints in the scene could help users to move around the “virtual world” or, the “real world” in the case of AR. If some areas are placed outside the field of view, signs can be placed to remind the users that there is other elements outside their focal point and encourage users to move around for better accessibility (e.g. moving their head/ walking forward and backwards/ moving around the area with their joy controller, etc.).
Furthermore, the speed and animation in an virtual environment is another major consideration, good experiences can reflect with good pace and movement in the virtual world, while sickness and symptoms can occur when the pace is too fast or too slow, causing motion sickness easily. Users may experience discomfort, headache, stomach awareness, nausea, vomiting, pallor, sweating, fatigue, drowsiness, disorientation, etc. Interaction designer shall pay attention to the use of motion, especially when designing for gaming, which VR is widely being used.
Besides motion, the use of graphics also affects the user’s level of comfort. (It makes up a virtual character when graphics is matched up with motions!) According to professor Masahiro Mori, he discovered that a lower emotional response will occur when objects in the virtual world is near to the human-like presentation. We can see that people’s emotional response has fall into the uncanny valley when the experience had stepped when a life-like avatars or characters are used. Balance have to be make carefully to avoid the experience falling into the uncanny valley.
Potential of VR/ AR
I believe that many possibilities are yet undiscovered with the use of VR/ AR in experience design. (exciting, right?) With the coordination of today’s fast growing use of technology and the great desires of unusual experiences in the market. VR/ AR can be widely used in not just gaming, but advertising, business solutions, training and education, medical support, etc. As a UX/ UI designer, it is a big potential to design and discover the abilities for a 3D environment :)
So, how can the design process works when designing for VR/AR?
The UCD (What is UCD?) process can be applied! We also set up personas to define target users, scenarios to draft the experiences, sitemaps to map out the interacting scenes, wireframes to design the actual scene, there are a few softwares for designers to create prototypes for VR/ AR devices as well (e.g. Torch). Last but not least, applying user research testing for feedback and looping the process until it is satisfied.
In VR/ AR, we will put more focus on the storytelling when design the full experiences. Since the experience is immersive, it is very important to create interactions that make sense to the user and do not required them to learn again. For example, make sure that the scenes are all linked up without jump here and there too quickly before it is making sense of the whole story/ theme.
When creating wireframes, there is a larger potential of imagination, because what you are creating is the “world”!
When creating wireframe, think about what is going to happen when users login to the device. What can they see? What can they interact with? How can they control and move around in the scenes?
Happy designing ;)
