No-Code XR Design Course — A Summary of 10 Student Projects
If you had one semester to prototype an XR app, what would you do?
We asked our students that question in September 2023, at the first meeting of a new XR design course at the Department of Information and Library Studies (KISK) at Masaryk University. They all had Meta Quest 2 headsets at home and had already spent a semester or two becoming familiar with virtual reality as part of their Information Services Design study program. However, this was their first XR course where they would be the makers, rather than just users.
The objectives of the XR design course were
👩💻 Learn about fundamental principles of XR design.
🔭 Explore the UX/UI of existing VR apps.
🥽 Prototype a VR/AR user interface in ShapesXR.
We had 10 students on board, coming from various professional and educational backgrounds. Their main task was to come up with an idea for an XR app and prototype its user interface and interactions in ShapesXR. As of March 2024, I’m thrilled to say all 10 of them managed and learned a lot during the process. (And we learned so much by teaching it, too!)
Let me give you a short summary of each project. If you want to read further, I’ll include a link to the individual case studies for each project. Let’s go!
Spatial Portfolio for Architects
The idea of Aleksandar’s project was “to present architectural projects on a virtual screen with interactive models, enabling users to test and experience designs in an immersive way.”
The owner of the architectural portfolio can place their architectural models on a viewing platform and choose virtual surroundings for each model. The visitors of the portfolio can manipulate the models, explore different angles, and simulate real-world scenarios. They can also teleport to project spaces and experience the models on a one-to-one scale.
Memory Box: Revive and transfer memories in XR
Jindřich’s concept explores preserving and augmenting memories through digitized photographs. Through augmented reality, users can interact with physical photos and enhance them with color, animations, annotations, or sound. The prototype shows how a user could view a digital collection of photos and record a memory for each photo.
World of Peace and Harmony for Mothers
Jana’s project aims to help new mothers cope with anxiety and stress. The app, inspired by the mobile app Kogito, combines the idea of a “safe place” with breathing relaxation techniques. In the prototype, users can choose their preferred environment, enter it, and follow guided breathing exercises.
Fairytale Library for Children
Karolína created a prototype of an immersive library where kids can explore different stories in virtual reality. The prototype starts with an app lobby where children can choose the fairytale they want to follow. In each fairytale, there’s a narrator that helps children understand the story. They can also choose to go through the story on their own, without the narrator.
Festive Room Decoration
Jana’s project allows users to decorate their homes in mixed reality, without the need for physical decorations. The prototype shows how users can select decorations, move them around, and place them in a virtual environment. Jana also lists several potential future features, such as AI-generated decorations and saving decoration layouts for future use.
Kare Sansui: Build Your Zen Garden
Michaela presents a concept for creating Zen gardens in virtual reality. Her prototype shows tools for garden creation, and an environment that offers a meditative and aesthetic experience. The user can choose the type of garden, select and position objects such as rocks, plants, and gravel, and use tools to modify the garden’s appearance. Additionally, they can adjust the environment’s sound, weather, and lighting, and explore the garden in a “real” scale.
(The case study is in Czech language.)
Rainbow Reality: LGBTQIA+ Community Gallery
Petr’s project, named “RainbowReality,” is a virtual space designed to educate users about the LGBTQIA+ community. It uses various interactive virtual “scenes” to provide information, particularly about different LGBTQIA+ flags. Users can interact with the elements within the virtual environment to learn more about their meanings.
(The case study is in Czech language.)
Virtual Cook Book: Culinary Experience of the Future
Natálie prototyped the idea of cooking with the assistance of augmented reality. In her concept, users can follow the recipe on text instruction panels, track required time on a timeline display, use stopwatches for precise timing, and easily navigate the active pots and pans with color-highlights.
(The case study is in Czech language.)
First Aid Training
Kamil created a prototype for a first aid training program in VR that would help users practice real-life scenarios in a safe and controlled environment. One of the main interactions is an indirect heart massage. This is achieved through two states: press and release. The user is guided through these actions with the help of visual and auditory cues, such as the rhythm of the song “Jingle Bells” which matches the recommended rate for chest compressions, and arrows that signal the movement changes.
(The case study is in Czech language.)
Oculus Sidebar: Stay in Touch with the “Outside World”
Pavel’s “Oculus Sidebar” is a user interface extension for virtual reality devices. It is a side panel that can always be visible in the user’s field of view during any VR activity and hidden whenever necessary. Users can personalize the Sidebar with widgets of their choice, such as a real-time display of their phone or a camera to the real world. It is designed to maintain a user’s connection to the external world without disrupting their immersion in the virtual one. In the prototype, users can activate the panel via the Oculus button on the right controller, and customize it using icons for adding, moving, and closing widgets.
(The case study is in Czech language.)
Takeaways
As we prepare the course for next year and new students, we take away these lessons:
- This semester, we spend the first half of the course with theory, heuristics, and reviewing existing XR apps. Next time, we want to start designing sooner in the timeline and make sure students get more time to get comfortable with the design software.
- We let the students learn ShapesXR on their own, using the official tutorials (which are amazing, by the way). However, some students would prefer a hands-on onboarding session to ShapesXR as part of the course, where we would explain the most important features and they could try it during the session.
- We are considering to include Bezi as an alternative to ShapesXR, or other XR design software that might emerge by autumn 2024. We want to avoid adding complexity to the course, but we also recognize that one tool doesn’t fit all.
Lastly, I want to share some of the heartwarming feedback we got from our students. 💛
“Great course — excellently assembled, engagingly and playfully presented. It was the best VR subject I have had during my studies and honestly — it sparked my interest in further exploration of VR. Markéta and Vojtěch were very well prepared, [they] provided sufficient feedback. If we encountered a problem, they were ready to solve it with the utmost willingness. They provided additional resources that helped us in our work.”
“A very well prepared course without a single hesitation. Perfect workflow in Miro, to which I regularly returned and searched for information about the development of my own project as well as about [XR design] heuristics. I went through the screenshots that people gave to individual heuristics and got inspired for my own app.”
The Teachers
This course was taught by Markéta Kučerová (that’s me!) and Vojtěch Brůža. I have background in UX/UI design and I’ve recently transitioned to XR design. Vojtěch is an XR developer and researcher with passion for art and design. We are both true XR enthusiasts and we are excited to bring more people into the realm of XR. 🚀
💬 If you’d like to know more about the course, teaching XR, or just have a chat, feel free to reach out on LinkedIn!
🤍 Thank you for reading!
