WOWlab_DevGamm_Methodology for creating VR projects. Programming experience.
Everything is born out of our mind.
The world that we see is reflected in our mind. Our affairs are endowed with the properties of our thinking.
Working with clarity of perception — we influence the quality of what we create.
What to do with our mind to create a new world?
I discussed this issue at the developer conference: DevGamm
My name is Pavel Sovushkin — I create experience.
My tool is Virtual Reality.
Design is born out of our thoughts. Watch the thought like a detail.
Design is born out of our thoughts.
A thought vehicle can be tired, stressed, stressed, sick, etc.
All that affects the mind — affects the mind.
The design is changing and in this change the details important for the quality of the project should not be lost.
We need a system that will control the thought and design result.
Detail in production.
If you are making a new car, then in the production of the car you can be creative and change the design of the car, but it is important for you to remember that a person should fit in the car. You can change the body, but you must remember the presence of the engine. There are “norms” of production.
Imagine the factory where the machine part is made. The part moves along the conveyor, it is processed by different tools and in the final we get the result with the right properties, for the right time and cost.
If the cost increases due to production errors, the competitive advantage is lost.
Markets such as the automobile industry have existed for a long time and there are known working and non-working approaches in production. Augmented and virtual reality are only emerging market areas. The rules on how to make projects and what is important to remember — only appear at the fingertips of those who create projects.
How to make thought become our detail?
UX design is a drawing according to which the whole team will create a project. Different professions will carry out the parts laid down in the drawing together for months. Having thought over the details better and reducing risks at the stage of creating the drawing, months of team work are saved.
How to make thought a part of production?
To find the right methods for creating VR projects, I organized two laboratories in which teams constantly tested different hypotheses of UX design, checking what works and what doesn’t. We are constantly looking for new ways to evoke feelings.
We describe the results in the methodology and all subsequent teams take into account the experience gained. This is how thinking forms — creating a new world in virtual reality.
All projects in the laboratory go through the concept stage, which briefly describes the idea of the project and its mechanics. During the first launch of Polygon by Lab, 17 concepts were passed on the basis of which, projects for assembling prototypes are selected by voting.
At the heart of each project is a unique stylization and one mechanics. As a result of each prototype, we gain new knowledge of what works to create experience and what doesn’t.
Division of labor
There is a classic story about the division of labor, which in turn led to the emergence of factory floors.
Imagine your task is to produce pins. The work that will lead to the pin made consists of actions. These actions can be performed by one person and then he will be a master, but it is possible to distribute these matters to the workshop of people, each of which will perform one repeating action. In the case of the workshop, the number of pins produced will increase in multiples.
Each step of the work, it will be possible to calculate how much time it takes and who is best suited to perform such a task.
Function blocks.
When the whole project is divided into steps, you need to understand what needs to be done in order for the step to be completed. We call these steps “Function Blocks”, but you can call them at least a rose, the essence will not change. The approach that we apply is based on the classical methods of production management, but still it is not therefore we will not load each other with terminology.
We present a functional block as a container into which something enters and then exits) For a block to be executed, tasks must come into it, on the one hand, the people and tools that carry out the task, management (standards, rules, time and budgets). And there is a way out — what you get as a result of the function.
Having defined the content of all four sides for each step of the project, you will gain greater clarity of what is happening and how.
The Dragon.
Inside the functional blocks, processes live. We describe the processes according to a methodology called the Dragon. The dragon is a method of describing processes by which satellites are launched into space and give instructions to astronauts. We felt that it is also perfectly suitable for describing the processes associated with the creation of virtual worlds.
Dragon’s strength is its friendliness) Understandability. We work with contractors, and we need to clearly describe how we see the process of performing work.
If not to complicate it, then Dragon is a visual language for describing processes built on the logic of actions and questions. And you can read more on wikipedia: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/ДРАКОН
Design experience. Example through the Looking Glass.
The division of labor, Function Blocks and the Dragon help to get the project in the expected time and money.
The design of experience is closer to directing, in which you need to think through what is happening and provide each step with a consistent implementation.
On the example of the project Through the Looking Glass, I will talk a little about the approaches that we used to describe the project.
Through the Looking Glass — a quest in virtual reality for the brand “Alice in Wonderland.” The quest is held by several people, wearing a helmet and moving through physical space. Attraction in general.
The main task for the design was not to come up with one specific plot, but to develop a constructor from which it would be possible to collect many quests later.
We began the description of the constructor by dividing the contents of the design into classes.
They took a mechanic class and began to describe the mechanics that we know that work well in virtual reality. We describe each of the mechanics without the exact context of its application, but only denote the general principle of how mechanics work.
For example, there is the mechanics of “Lens”. A lens is a design in which the Player looks through “something” and sees the environment of others. And already from this basic rule, this approach can be applied, substituting tasks (for example, to find hidden signs that are visible only through the lens) and the object itself through which the Player is looking.
The following is a description of the rules and details on how this design can work in situations and what to consider when assembling. So we get one die in the constructor mechanic. At the moment, there are 63 such cubes in the Looking Glass project.
Or take a visualization class. And we begin to describe graphic wow effects. At this level of description, they are not yet context bound. We only indicate methods that will look good in virtual reality and evoke emotions.
For example, we say that depending on the player’s movement, the world around him will be collected from particles.
In this way, we describe classes, and then move on to creating history. Where is our task, this is based on the goal of the level — to understand the methods for achieving this goal. At this stage, we simply take our cubes of mechanics and visualizations and determine the rules by which they are combined with each other.
So we create level scripts. To check whether the resulting design meets all quality criteria, we have a special filter.
The filter consists of a set of questions for each aspect of the created design.
For example, our quest is collective, and therefore the tasks must be solved jointly.
In order to check whether the designer has forgotten to think about it, he asks himself a set of questions to help him see spots in his thinking. For example, he asks himself such questions:
How can I make solving problems of a level collective?
How can I make players communicate more?
Why is it important for players to communicate in this scene?
How can I reward Players for communicating in the Scene?
Do players have a topic for discussion?
Do players want to share something?
Is it convenient for players to communicate?
Is their way of communicating amazing?
And similar sets of questions on other design issues. As a result of the question, you either have an answer inside, or you understand that you can think about the design more.
Our approaches are not perfect. We improve and add them at every step, working on the quality of the projects that we create. I was pleased to share some thoughts with you and it’s great if they will lead you to useful solutions that you can apply at home.
Now the team and I are working on a project for Magic Leap, and again we are faced with the task of figuring out how to create an understandable and emotional design. If you are on a similar path and are doing projects for VR or AR — write, I will be pleased to discuss ideas and solutions with you. Let’s do amazing together.
WOWlab: wooowlab@gmail.com
