Human-Centered Design for AR & VR: A Call to Action for Designers
XR interaction designer Sam Brewton on how designers can make the most of a pivotal moment in spatial computing.
As an interaction designer, design researcher and educator who specializes in AR and 3D, Sam Brewton is at the leading edge of the next wave of computing. RLab recently spoke to Brewton about the evolution of spatial computing, the opportunities this new medium presents for designers across disciplines, and how a human-centered approach can help designers adapt to the affordances of emerging technologies.
Riding the Wave of Spatial Computing
As Senior Design Manager for Augmented Reality at Wayfair, Brewton is shaping the future of retail. He previously worked with AR at the cutting-edge of life science manufacturing as Lead AR Designer at Apprentice.io, and at tech-forward creative agencies R/GA and AKQA. In Beijing, he designed AR installations with gesture recognition in public spaces, like for airports, where you don’t want to touch a physical interface. And in Singapore, he launched AR scavenger hunts before Pokemon GO.
A lot has changed in the decade Brewton has been doing this work. “Consumer expectations might always be ahead of tech capabilities, which is okay, but they’re converging really quickly,” Brewton says. “I think we can see that this is not just another wave of hype. It’s the next wave of computing.”
“This is a pivotal moment for augmented and virtual reality. The foundational technologies are being set by the public tech companies — across the board — so now is the time for brands and designers to invest or establish themselves as well.”
“As creators,” Brewton continues, “we have to be human-centered and define the rules of how these systems work. Because, if we don’t address it as designers and creators, other people will. And the question is: will they have humans in mind? Not just the ‘user,’ but also other humans who might not want to be subjected to the technology? Will we have them in mind?”
A Human-Centered Foundation for the Future of Design
When it comes to designing spatial experiences, human-centered design is the best way to start. “We have to lead with human-centered design and user needs in spatial computing because there are so many possibilities,” Brewton explains. “And I think this gets back to what it means to be a designer: understanding the context and then tailoring the content to fit the context — from the time, to those different zones of space, for that user, for multiple users. Because in the same location, the context of a spatial experience can change multiple times throughout the day.
A lot of digital design work is focused on re-sizing content to fit different screens, where Brewton notes “you lose the idea of the higher levels of design, of the service design and design research that all sits within human-centered design.”
Designing for spatial computing requires looking at the bigger picture. And the bigger picture considers everyone involved in an experience — both directly and indirectly. “Human-centered design is not just ‘end-user’ focused, it’s human-focused,” Brewton says. “For example, in a healthcare context, we might consider the patient the end-user, but there are also the healthcare service providers who are also humans, and we may need to design systems of interaction between them.
“We would do this in service design, but in spatial I think we actually need to take into account all of the roles, because there may be multiple people present. Or, in our current context, everyone may not be physically present, so we need to take that into account as well.”
A human-centered design approach has the added benefit of scaling with the technology. So no matter which form factor you’re designing for now, a human-centered approach will be foundational and grounding — even as spatial computing continues to evolve.
With that said, human-centered design does not need to preclude all other considerations. Some organizations may espouse more of a prototyping-first approach to AR and VR development, for example, and Brewton suggests the two can go hand-in-hand.
“For a brand, finding the right projects or developments should be based on finding those pain-points with the highest friction that we can solve in a spatial manner,” he shares. “Anything can be AR, but it really comes down to being smart about your choices — which moment in your brand experience should be augmented? That will answer which business use cases to address first.”
“That exploration pairs well with the ability to prototype and a command of the spatial palette,” he continues. “Designers should have a good understanding of different tools and know how they work. But they still need to apply those to problems that they’ve mapped.”
Advice for Designers Getting Started in Spatial
Brewton offers a few words of advice for designers who want to understand their path in starting or advancing in this work. What will they need to demonstrate in a portfolio, and in a job scenario?
“I think it’s everything from showing that you can do human-centered design and develop a case study, to creating prototypes that you’ve researched and tested, to showing some competency with spatial design tools — whether it’s designing the 3D assets or designing portions of the prototype.”
Brewton will lead RLab’s upcoming online intensive Human-Centered Design for AR & VR, starting on July 25th where he’ll teach a human-centered approach for prototyping experiences across the mixed reality spectrum. Designers with no previous game engine, coding or 3D graphics experience will learn this scalable approach to spatial design, and get started in WebVR, WebAR, social AR, 3D asset creation and spatial AR — all within a two-week online course.
To learn more or register for RLab’s upcoming online class Human-Centered Design for AR & VR, visit RLab.nyc.
This article was written by Janice Brown, Manager of Education and Outreach at RLab.
