VR Fairytale Library for Children

Concept

In today’s era of technology, we often combine the real world with the virtual world. One of these connections is the VR fairytale library for children. The concept is simple: create a space where kids can explore different stories in virtual reality.

The goal is to create an immersive experience in an environment that is suitable for children. This article describes my process of creating a prototype of such an application in ShapesXR for the User Interface Design for VR course at FF MUNI.

Moodboard

When creating the mood board, I captured the atmosphere I wanted to bring to the project. I chose images that convey playfulness, creativity, and a fairytale atmosphere, as well as a sense of home.

A visual of a cozy room with a library that could be part of the app lobby.

App Lobby and Fairytale Selection

The first step in our virtual world starts in the introduction hall, where children can choose the fairy tale they want to explore. I uploaded images I made using Canva AI into the space. For the demonstration, I prototyped one of five possible stories. A picture above the door represents each story.

An initial app lobby in which the user can select one of the fairy tales.

To enhance the clarity of the user’s choice, pointing at the selected choice triggered the second stage to occur, which shows only the selected picture above the door, changes its color to darker brown, and shows a hand pointing at a selected option.

Selection of a story demonstrated.

Plant Monster and Joseph's living room

The story of this prototype is about a lonely scientist named Joseph, who one day grew a plant pet called Plant Monster that was a bit wild and almost destroyed his apartment. But the Plant Monster put the whole apartment back in order, and Josef found a friend for his apartment.

Plantmonster and Joseph. The play button triggers Holonotes, which I describe below.

I intended to evoke the feeling of a playful but cozy space that fits the story. Each stage in ShapesXR represents another part of the story, allowing children to explore the story at their own pace and in their own way. The next stage can be accessed by clicking on a door in the room.

The cozy vibe and playful colors were used to set the vibe I intended in my mood boards.

Storytelling a Holonotes

To enhance the storytelling experience, I included Holonotes, an interactive feature that narrates the story through the narrator’s avatar. This addition helps to make the tale more understandable for children.

However, users can explore the app without using Holonotes, allowing them to use their imagination to comprehend the story. Each stage of the experience depicts a distinct part of the story. To increase vitality, the environment within each chamber changes as the story progresses.

Furthermore, each story culminates with a good lesson that can be applied to real-life circumstances, and each narrative ends on a positive note, as is customary with outstanding storytelling.

Video demonstration

Want to see how it all looks in practice? Watch the video demonstration to see the whole process from start to finish.

Conclusion

This project was quite a challenge for me because I didn’t find ShapesXR very intuitive. As a minus, I see the possibility of designing only directly in VR. So you can only upload objects or photos, but you can’t model a prototype in another app. However, for a smaller-fidelity prototype, ShapesXR is sufficient.

To conclude, I would like to thank our teachers, Markéta Kučerová and Vojtěch Brůža, who were ready to help us with iterations, brainstorming, and interacting with ShapesXR.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me at 542407@mail.muni.cz.