Getting into XR design at Meta — interview with a Spark Designer
How to get into a spatial design career at Meta.
Sergiy Voronov is a Product Designer at Spark Meta and a mentor for Ukrainian designers. The story of how he transitioned from conventional 2D design to the exciting field of XR is an inspiring one.
We recently discussed his early interest in 3D, his determination to work at XR leader Meta and his advice for would-be spatial designers. The main body of this article is in Sergiy’s words.
Journey into XR
Early interest in 3D and computers
As a kid I hacked PCs to make games work and had a book on how the first Pixar movie was made. I always wanted to be involved in 3D.
I studied Computer Science at university in my home country of Ukraine. Then I worked for 15 years in website and mobile product design. That was the time of Adobe Flash being used for anything interactive. Using it required applying both design and code.
Discovering a XR career
Many years later, I visited a friend working at Oculus in London (owned by Facebook, now Meta). He gave me the very first Oculus Quest to try and my mind was blown. This new wireless headset was in fact better than the tethered HTC Vive I had used before.
It was at this moment I decided to work in the XR space. I started reading about the what is involved in the job at design.facebook.com. During lockdown I learned to work with meshes and vertices on Blender. Then I learned to use Spark to develop AR filters for Instagram.
Applying to work at Spark
With only unpaid, side project experience with Spark and Blender, I applied for a contract role at Spark London (owned by Facebook, alongside Oculus). I did have lots of 2D UI design experience to share. Flat UI is often used in XR, so this is a great way to transition from 2D to 3D.
Advice for budding XR designers
Stay focused on your goal. I decided I wanted to work at Spark/Oculus and never stopped believing. I even told them it was my passion in the interview. Even now I plan to work in the Oculus VR side of the business, so I am studying Unity.
Approach to UX design for XR
There are a lot of game developers in XR and game developers aren’t usually UX designers. But you do see design-thinking in the space.
For example, there is a lot of service design. Journeys like onboarding for a new headset owner, guidance on learning a new app and training for new hand gestures.
Pain points of designing for XR
3D demands a steep learning curve
If you don’t have much exposure to 3D, the learning curve is larger than other areas of design. You have to learn lots of jargon and tools that are particularly demanding.
XR has inadequate tooling
There is a lack of tooling for XR prototyping. Unity is required for decent interactivity and it isn’t easy to use.
Tools like Spline, Bezier and ShapesXR are all lowering the barrier to 3D prototyping. You get to play with primitives and that is fun. But there isn’t anything to simulate something like Tilt Brush or to get creative with hand gestures.
XR is still greenfield
This is exciting as well as challenging. In 2019 I attended a conference in Sweden and met a lady who worked on an interaction model at Oculus. Her talk was inspiring.
In spatial design, we all have the ability to impact the interaction model. We are still figuring things out(!) There is a shortage of user research, guidance is fluid and there are few components.
Bad design in XR can have physical impact
If you get XR design wrong, you can actually give users headaches or nausea. Even I feel sick playing some games.
There are some things you can do to prevent this:
- Help users feel in sync with teleporting and incorporate gaze into interactions. The user needs to feel in control.
- Remind the user’s body that the movement isn’t real. For example, reduce a user’s field of view during a transition. Sickness can occur when the body thinks VR is real, but detects something unnatural about a movement.
Usability testing for XR is not straightforward
You can test a Figma mobile prototype pretty easily. Testing in a headset is not as straightforward or quick.
And while testing isn’t as lightweight or easy for XR, it is also something you need to do more often. There are more dimensions to consider in XR and you can’t always empathise with these at a desktop.
So you are required to jump between desktop and headset to test every minor change to a spatial prototype. This is not only time consuming but constant switching can become physically uncomfortable.
Ideas for improvement in XR
XR needs mass adoption
The technology requires mass commercialisation to standardise. Right now, there are only three major use cases for XR:
- Fitness
- Games
- Military/Industry
Because the space is splintered between rival platforms, there is no common language. It is still kind of geeky, used by enthusiasts. Apple’s new headset is a great start for this much needed mass adoption.
What is matchboxxr?
I hope you found this post valuable. As the founder, I feel I should mention matchboxxr. Matchboxxr is an online tool to create and share simple, interactive XR/VR prototypes.
Turbo charge projects, reduce the risk of mistakes and empower non-developers to articulate ideas.
At the time of my writing this, matchboxxr is running a beta program for potential users to freely test our software in exchange for feedback. Please get in touch if you think you would find this useful.
