Designing An Environment of Positive Judgement for Social VR
On April 1st, I attended a Makeathon hosted by We Make Realities as a Communicator/Content Strategist. Rather than programming a tangible VR application in a hackathon, researchers, designers, engineers, and communicators generated written ideas for building social VR to be safe, welcoming places for everyone.
Below is how our Team Sasquatch found out and solved a social VR problem with Design Sprint.
PART 1: Who are you?
Simon: Professional VR developer for the architecture industry, with a passion for inclusive design. Strongly believes VR will change the world for the better.
Awen: I’m doing digital, content and social media marketing, I also have a strong background in journalism. I want to learn more about storytelling in social VR, and how we can make positive impacts in and out of social VR.
Jing: Digital Product Manager with a passion for empathy tech. I’m building a startup called Immersive Square, a VR booking platform to connect people without access to VR equipments to discover and experience VR content and provide feedback .
Caitlin: I am a user experience designer for XR. Our work together in the XR field will shape new ways of thinking and expand our understanding of humanity. Twitter @CaitlinEsworthy.
PART 2: What problem do you want to address?
“How might we…?”
- HMW make social VR more meaningful by helping us learn more about ourselves and our social interactions with others?
- HMW make social VR help us become the person we want to be?
- HMW use other people’s view of us to manifest we you look? (Their perception of you literally creates your form……)
- HMW we create an environment of positive judgement in social VR?
Why is this problem important to your team?
Because the social VR platforms in the market right now can’t offer us constructive, and positive feedback that can be applied to our real lives.
What unique perspective do you have to bring to this?
We bring user-centric, empathy-driven, impact-oriented perspectives to this problem.
We endeavor to reward positive behavior by creating a token system, allowing each participant an opportunity to reinforce co-participant’s good deeds, thereby creating a virtuous cycle.
Each participant is given a finite number of tokens as a form of social currency, encouraging only authentic feedback.
By only allowing for up-voting, not down-voting, we prevent participants with bad intentions from abusing our system.
PART 3: Summarize the user journey.
Who are you designing for? What is their journey?
Who is your solution focused on?
Why did you choose this person?
Outline who this person is. What are they comfortable with?
What do they know, not know?
Where are they going?
We are designing a social VR app for anyone who aims to learn more about themselves, who is interested in developing their social skills. We chose them because we want to create an environment to reinforce positive behaviors, and we believe the majority of the users want to have a positive social VR experience.
This person is authentic and open-minded, feels comfortable with sharing weaknesses, receiving and offering constructive feedback.
In this app, participants know their personal objectives (what traits on their own and other people’s personal radar chart need development) but they don’t know each other’s age, gender, or race.
They leave with a greater sense of empathy for others, and a clearer understanding of their strengths and weaknesses in and out of VR.
Journey:
- Collaborators sign in.
- Select preference and traits they want to work on.
- Join matched sandbox.
- Introduction and assessment.
- Interaction.
- Offer and receive feedback.
“We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us. ”
To be continued…
PART 4: Outline empathy and perspective needs across the journey.
Physical Orientation:
Where are you? What can you see around you?
Proximity:
How close are you to objects/people?
Physical and Emotional Reactions:
Do you need to respond in a certain way?
Interactions with Users/Characters:
Who are you talking to? How are you talking to them? Words? Gestures?
Directional Cues:
Do you need to react to something?
Visual Field:
What do you need to see?
Readability:
Is there important content/information you need to read?
Physical Comfort:
Do you belong here? Do you feel comfortable with others around you?
Motion and Gestures:
Do you need motion or gesture?
PART 5: Craft your experience and learnings.
What is your final experience? (Doesn’t have to be perfect!)
How does this address your initial problem statement?
Are there any gaps in the experience?
