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5.20 AM ABOUT THE DESIGN VR virtual design is the creation of a simulated world | |
How to Design for Virtual Reality: VR Design Fundamentals and Best Practices. The reality is great most of the time, but there is room for improvement. As much fun as driving a fast car is, wouldn't you rather fly through the air like a bird? We talk about how reality is a wonderful place to live, but every now and then we want to visit places that are a little unrealistic. And judging by the rise in popularity of VR design over the past few years, many other people agree. The advent of virtual reality poses a number of real challenges for designers. When it comes to designing a virtual reality space, there are very few options, but at the same time, it leaves room for innovation and new ideas to achieve goals. The question is how to make this transition? VR design is the creation of a simulated world that people can immerse themselves in using equipment such as headsets. Virtual reality as we know it today actually has a long history. With origins dating back decades, we see it used for practical applications such as NASA flight simulations, and for entertainment such as the acclaimed Sensorama. But never in history has virtual reality been so achievable and profitable. Recent technical advances in virtual reality predict that it will eventually reach all industries. The following are its most useful uses: tutorials for students, physiotherapy, psychological treatment, e.g. for people with post-traumatic stress, cancer research, modelling, image rendering for architects, staff training empathy training, like gender reassignment, new artistic medium, remote communication, virtual tourism, archaeological research. At the moment, VR remains the most popular in the entertainment industry. There's no limit to the number of fun and creative ways to use virtual reality for recreational purposes, from taking a new look at Rembrandt to watching movies in a Netflix virtual home theater. In terms of cash profit, VR design is currently the most successful in the gaming industry. Many see this as a revolution in the rules of the game or a technical breakthrough that threatens to overtake other gaming consoles or at least take away a significant share of their profits. This comes on the heels of the first VR gaming headset and its "success". In practice, virtual reality design is closest to video game design, and they are often the same thing. Web designers will see some similarities in the interactivity and UX features, but visually it's a whole new game. Virtual reality design has many unique visual challenges, such as depth variation, recognizable cues, and the inclusion of functional controls within the environment. There's also the dilemma of immersion - the greatest strength of virtual reality design may be its destruction. Everything the user sees and does must be carefully planned. You can't overstimulate them with too many elements or bore them with too little. You need to make sure their next task is clear and the important elements are visible from all angles. Essentially, VR design gives the designer more options, for better or worse. The virtual reality industry itself is growing every day, and new companies are appearing more and more. But so far it seems that the state of VR design has not yet met the ambitions of investors. While there are more virtual reality designers than ever before, it is still such a new industry that many are in demand as they move forward. However, there is still enough backstory to provide a solid foundation to begin with. Below, we've compiled the most trusted best practices for virtual reality design to give you a head start. Let's look at what VR designers need to know before they start rendering. To illustrate the dos and don'ts, we'll turn to our imaginary virtual reality shopping app. Please note that we will mainly be discussing design principles in the context of virtual reality. If you're concerned about technical issues, it largely depends on the device you're developing for. Most VR companies provide technical guidance on how to design virtual reality for their platform. Let's start with controls - the main priority of interactivity. In VR design there is no way to use different buttons for different actions - you can't point and click with precision. Instead, most controls should be gestures that exist in the environment you're developing. To make things easier, you can divide the types of control gestures into two main groups: semantic and adaptive. Semantic gestures are ordinary movements that we are familiar with in real life: walking, craning our necks to see, nodding “yes”, etc. Response gestures are the way we interact with the environment: picking up objects, throwing them , pressing buttons, etc. Designing responsive gestures is more difficult because you also have to take into account features of the object, such as weight or perhaps aerodynamics. For the most part, your goal is to replicate reality, so try to rely on as many natural gestures as possible. The fewer “controls” a user has to learn, the easier it will be to get immersed. Since everything in your environment could potentially be interactive, your users will need constant feedback to avoid wasting time. Let them know that the action has been completed using an affordance or even just a sound effect. This follows e-commerce best practices - instead of a pop-up screen telling you that your order is being processed, the VR experience can be realistic, such as a call from a cash register or a line of dialogue from a virtual cash register. Visual issues aside, you shouldn't force the user to look back and forth between something close and something far away so that their eyes don't have to change focus too often. Try to keep the relevant task visuals at the same level of depth. Because our own vision is curved, it is best to display text and images that are not part of the environment as a slightly curved, concave surface. This is better for visual immersion and will look smoother when the user turns their head. Speakers are best for immersive sound because you can change the direction of the sound, even using it as part of an activity. Headphones limit this benefit, but you still want to give users this ability. It's best to design your speakers to create the most realistic sound possible, and then scale it up for headphones. Rendering can be a challenge for even the most thoughtful VR design. And while it does make the visuals much more effective, it's not worth the cost of glitches or inconsistencies. This is twice as much for the avatar's body, which is sure to be more visible than other elements. Pick your battles when it comes to avatar rendering. It may be better to have no body at all than to have one with distracting flaws. The meaning of the avatar depends on the application - in the game, the fully rendered body of an alien space soldier adds to the illusion, but for a job training simulation all you might need are blocky disembodied hands. Use visuals to convey depth and space. 3D elements are easy to spot in real life, but remember that VR still relies on a 2D display model. This makes demonstrating spatial relationships a particularly challenging task for designers; users need to know how close or far objects are from them and from each other in order to interact correctly. The good news is that designers can carry over a lot of traditional visuals to better define space and spacing. Classic techniques such as isometrics, lighting and shadows can help create realistic 3D spaces, as well as more modern techniques such as parallax and textures. To make your VR design's body movements resemble real life, remember that we humans move our limbs in arcs, not straight lines. A common but understandable mistake in programming hard moves is giving away completely how real the reality is. We are now approaching a turning point: the limitations of VR design are becoming less about technical aspects and more about the imagination of designers. Consider this a problem. Virtual reality design is the new frontier. Of course it's hard to start with because it's new and unfamiliar, but for the same reasons there are endless possibilities. | |
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