Designing for Virtual Reality: Environments & Interactions
- 1. Designing for VR Part 1: Environments JUST A/VR SHOW
- 2. Virtual & Augmented Reality Virtual Reality: Replacing a user’s physical world with a computer-generated one Example: Oculus Rift Augmented / Mixed Reality: Enhancing the physical world with digital objects Example: Microsoft HoloLens
- 6. Immersion & Exploration User is immediately a part of the environment you’ve built Small details matter 360 degree content is expected Users will want to try their own ideas Great VR experiences react the way a user expects, even if it isn’t part of the designed flow Even small places can be open for exploration Scale makes a huge impact on presence
- 9. Attention Users have freedom to look anywhere, so capturing and guiding attention is important Audio and visual cues can help nudge users in the right way Forced Attention = BAD EXPERIENCE
- 12. Human Experience & Comfort PHYSICAL COMFORT USER ADAPTATION
- 13. Physical Comfort Don’t Make the Player Sick!
- 14. Physical Comfort Responsible for orienting ourselves in the world… and motion sickness Motion sickness occurs when sensory system inputs are not consistent Probably the number one concern in VR experiences The Proprioceptive System
- 15. User Adaptation Physical differences apply strongly to how someone experiences something in VR Height IPD Gender Respect player settings for things like camera placement Design environments for a variety of users
- 17. Depth Eye focus changes rapidly with distance of objects Avoid forcing focus changes too frequently between items at different visual depths Don’t build objects in too closely to the camera placements
- 18. HUDS “Heads Up Displays” Frequently used in video games UI elements anchored to the player’s head / camera Not impossible, but problematic in VR Difficult to keep at a comfortable distance Lots of head movement = lots of floating objects No clear parallel to a physical-world experience for most
- 21. Anchor Objects Specific point of reference that the user can orient to Stays static in the scene Helps prevent motion sickness Example: Cockpits Example: Virtual nose
- 23. Colors Shadows and lighting may change the way color appears on dynamic objects and make things harder to read Higher contrast helps make objects stand out from one another, but viewing angle may change dramatically depending on the user’s position Green is the easiest color to read
- 24. Text Avoid large amounts of text to instruct or inform users of information within a virtual environment Consider how you will draw attention to text within your environment to capture the user’s attention
- 25. Screens Curved screens work better than a single panel Translucency or transparency can help keep your environment cohesive Use sparingly – avoid overwhelming the user with too many menus
- 26. Sense of Self FORCED BEHAVIORS VIRTUAL BODIES
- 27. Forced Behaviors Moving a player involuntarily: Breaks presence Loses autonomy Causes motion sickness Stay as close to 1:1 as possible Don’t force it!
- 28. Virtual Bodies No body > wrong body If users can see it, they expect to act the way their physical self would Our brain is surprisingly good at filling in the empty spaces Example Problem: Hands can be tracked easily, but forearms are harder Solution: Draw virtual hands, but leave forearms excluded
- 30. Part 2: Input Stay Tuned!
Editor's Notes
- #23: Vox Machinae screenshot