Beyond the Headset: Human-Centered Design in the age of VR
A non-gamer’s first impressions of VR
When Jules Verne, often referred to as one of the fathers of science fiction, was writing his novels Eighty Days around the World or Twenty Leagues under the Sea, the titles were enough to inspire awe in his readers. Those feats were impossible at the end of the 19th century. Today, if you have the spirit of the explorer in yourself, only the most extreme challenges are left unconquered — swimming across the Pacific Ocean, sacrificing your life to cross Antarctica. Unless you invent a whole new reality, in which the rules are yet to be created, the science documented, the vocabulary scripted and the adventures mapped out. That was the spirit of the Vision Summit for Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, which took place appropriately in the dreamy LaLa Land on February 10 and 11, 2016.
A lot has been said about why it took VR so long to become real, but in the last 12 months, the majority of these challenges have been overcome. Today, no one really doubts Mark Zuckerberg when he declared at MWC 2016: “Pretty soon we’re going to live in a world where everyone has the power to share and experience whole scenes as if you’re just there, right there in person.”
The question is not if VR is here. It is not even when that will happen, because some may argue it already has. The real question is how it will change the way we live, we communicate, we create. And how can we make sure that while we experience everything VR has to offer, we retain our humanity, our connection with each other, and our ability to combine the digital and the physical to have more meaningful lives. It is these higher level challenges that are perfectly aligned with the capabilities of outcome-focused designers.
The VR Vision Summit allowed me to crystalize some of the thoughts and ideas that have been swirling around as VR whips the tech world into a frenzy. VR is titillating in the same way in which, a taboo is — you know the experience will be unique, possibly unforgettable. Deep down, you also fear that there may be no coming back. You may lose yourself in fantasy, but you will also lose a piece of yourself in the process.
That said, we are human. We cannot help ourselves and will take that step. And the role of design will be to make sure that in the excitement of the new experience, we remain true to what makes us human — connection with others.
1. VR it is unchartered, complex territory that demands of us to unlearn some old lessons, discover new ones and along the way delight in the unexpected
In a VR experience, things that we have taken for granted — our own identity, our understanding of time and space, our position in the environment — can suddenly be flipped upside down. While some of the laws of physics still apply (optics), others are often disregarded (gravity). Figuring out how to reconcile the discrete shape of our physical being and our ingrained understanding of what is normal with the shapelessness of the virtual reality often results in a feeling of discomfort (a feeling that you cannot put your finger on, literally). This is a problem we have never experienced before and to solve for it, we have to unlearn a few lessons and be prepared for a lot of trials and errors, as the the team from German AR studio Re-flekt shared. Working with Audi, their goal was to create an expansive VR experience within the confines of a car showroom without “teleporting.” Recognizing that the audience in an Audi showroom will be less tolerant of glitches than the typical gamer or early VR adopter, they experimented with different approaches until they created a method that was not only scalable, but comfortable and natural. In the process of testing different solutions, they also discovered that “clipping” or the ability to see through VR objects is something users loved.
That is where the real appeal and the potential for design lies: creating narratives around these never-before seen scenarios and designing experiences around our brand new super powers.
2. VR is driven by content, yet the right content is yet to be invented
As with any new platform content will be key for consumer adoption. Yet content, and the entire system of tools, infrastructure, even language that describes the process and the experience need to be reinvented to fit the amorphous VR space.
On the content creation tool side, companies like Lytro are working on tackling the demand for complex hardware. On the software side, the VR Summit organizer, Unity Technologies, is rapidly making VR content creation smooth, easy and efficient. The new affordances of VR give us a unique opportunity to find the right balance between the traditional content tools and the opportunity to rethink existing frameworks. In addition, tools like sound and light that have long been parts of a director’s mood palette are becoming indispensable in steering the user in a multidimensional environment. On the other hand, many of the tools that we have been taking for granted in the design process will fall short as we try to create rich, multidimensional, open-ended VR experiences. Storyboarding may be the perfect example of as current storyboarding tools fail to address the inherent challenges of VR and do not support the easily preview and manipulate ideas in 3D space.
Studios, large and small, are jumping on board to create VR content. From four-five people shops like Otherworld Interactive, to Hollywood bigwigs like Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay, content creators rush to be first, betting that there would be enough VR devices on market. Yet unless they dare to reinvent storytelling, the novelty may wear off fairly quickly. Some content producers argued that the VR stories they tell can be simple to allow for viewers to bring their own interpretation to the rich environment. Others used complex and ambiguous terms like spherical storytelling and world-building to differentiate the scale, if not of their work, at least of their ambitions. Yet, despite the big words, the most compelling experience at the summit, at least so far, was as abstract and disconnected from a storyline as only VR can be — I came out of the Tilt Brush demo grinning from ear to ear.
Thinking about how to classify and organize these content categories, how to submerge the user into them and enable the engagement we have learnt to take for granted as we binge on online content will be a big opportunity area for design. So would the design of the content creation tools themselves.
3. VR can change irreversibly the way we communicate, create and live — for the better or for the worse.
I would argue that the overlap between fans of The Matrix and VR enthusiasts is quite significant. Yet, despite the obvious parallels — existing in a semi-catatonic state, being immersed in a non-existing reality, cables and tubes keeping you within a few feet of a charging station — there was not a lot of discussion around what some of the potential negative consequences might be and how we should make sure we avoid them. If our Internet and phone addiction is an indicator of our likely behavior, VR can lead to even more dire consequences of deeper isolation and reliance on technology at the expense of human connection and communication.
While there is still room to argue whether VR will unequivocally make us better human beings, there are certain scenarios and industries where the technology is making indisputable improvements. VR has been used to effectively treat such serious disorders like clinical depression and post traumatic stress disorder. Google Cardboard Expeditions is bringing the world to kids in schools all over the US in a way that was never possible before. Through VR, we are conquering the unnatural and hostile environment in space.
The opportunity for design will be to create experiences and interactions that balance immersion with inclusion, facilitate exploration yet encourage communication, unchain imaginations with the ultimate goal to make not only the virtual reality, but our real one better.
Day 1 of the inaugural AR/VR Vision Summit ended with a presentation by the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab. They talked about how they are using Microsoft HoloLens to accelerate training, exploration and research. The lesson they shared that stayed with me:
AR and VR was most effective when it augmented our agency, and built on our humanity.
That should be the mantra for this exciting emerging industry.
