Designing for Emotion — Space-Z
Julia Kispert, Nawal Chaudhry, Abigail Stolp, Bea Bautista
Our Non-Usability Issue
For this design sprint, our group undertook the task of developing an immersive 3-D space exploration experience using the open-source web framework A-Frame. Our primary objective was designing for emotion, specifically creating a calming experience that evokes senses of wonder and awe in users that are searching for an immersive emotional experience. We did this by creating our own, unique version of space which we have called Space-Z.
The goals for our product were as follows:
★ To serve as a meditation tool
★ To provide a space to reflect and escape from daily stressors
★ This product is specifically for users that might struggle with managing feelings of being overwhelmed, stressed, or generally anxious.
★ To experiment with new environments to create a sense of calmness, but still interesting to be immersed in so as to not overstimulate our users.
★ To create an environment that is not traditionally accessible using VR
With our goals in mind, we decided to move forward with creating an entirely new solar system for our users to explore.
We did some preliminary research on which tools could be helpful to us in creating our AR/VR experience and we received a recommendation from our professor to explore A-Frame, a web framework for creating VR. We were also given a pair of Google cardboard glasses that we could use to test our virtual reality. Using A-Frame and the cardboard glasses allowed us to build a very accessible prototype as anyone can go to the public link online. After looking through the A-Frame tutorial on their website, we decided that the technology would be a great fit for our project.
When exploring current virtual reality studies and examples evoking relaxation, we found that medical professionals have been implementing VR in meditation practices and have been using VR to create virtual retreats to induce relaxation.
★ In 2004, researchers from Umeå University created Relaxation Island, a virtual reality island that allowed users to explore four “relaxation points” that included two beaches and a waterfall (Waterworth 2004).
- The researchers tested Relaxation Island in a pilot study and found that the four locations successfully induced relaxation and daydreaming in the participants (Waterworth 2004).
- Participants also reported feeling safe and secluded from physical dangers in the outside world which further encouraged relaxation (Waterworth 2004).
★ In 2021, researchers tested the DYNECOM virtual reality environment built around the premise of sitting by a fireplace (Järvelä et al. 2021).
- They captured biometric data such as the heart rates of participants while in the virtual reality and found that virtual reality proved to be a useful tool for meditation practices by allowing users to have a “distraction-free” environment necessary for effective mindfulness practices (Järvelä et al. 2021, p. 2).
- The researchers found that allowing multiple participants to engage in group meditation over DYNECOM’s campfire virtual reality made it easier to evoke empathy and relaxation. (Järvelä et al. 2021, p.5)
- While participants had lower heart rate variability as a group and many reported feeling relaxed, some participants reported feeling overwhelmed and having motion sickness from the VR (Järvelä et al. 2021, p. 2).
After learning more about current meditation and mindfulness VR applications, we decided to create our own relaxing virtual reality environment in A-Frame.
We first started looking at current examples, which we noticed to be focused on nature themes. From here we decided to try to recreate an outer space environment that would allow users to immerse themselves in a unique and quiet environment that they would not be able to experience in the real world. After reading various research papers and considering our goals, we wanted to design a solar system where users can explore and see planets, but with fewer elements than what is truly up in the sky. We chose to do this with hopes of avoiding overstimulation and motion sickness which is seen in current software reported in Järvelä et al. 2021.
While creating our prototype we ran into some problems and questions:
★ How many planets should we have?
We chose to start with six, which all have different characteristics. Characteristics we varied include color, speed, rotation, presence of rings, and size.
★ What type of music should we have?
After looking at many songs, we chose to go through free songs labeled “outer space” or “galaxy”. After listening to many songs we chose one called cosmic-glow, as it reminded us of a song you would hear in a planetarium and made us all feel calm.
★ How do we make the sun look bright and add realistic shadowing?
With A-Frame it is difficult to make a specific object a light source, rather than choosing point or directional lighting. To give the effect the sun is brighter than the rest of the plants we added a point light to be in the center of the sphere (the sun). This created the shadowing of the planets but also made the sun completely black as there was no light shining on the sun. To fix this, we added a light ambient lighting and increased the metal characteristic of the sun (which brightened its appearance).
★ Should we add shooting stars or asteroids?
To start we chose to add one shooting star, with no randomness of when it goes across the screen to try to avoid overstimulation and motion sickness.
★ Should we let people travel through the planets?
In real life rockets are not able to move through a planet. However, we wanted to allow users full freedom to move around wherever they want. For this reason, we chose to keep current movement parameters (the user can move anywhere on the screen).
We used the framework of ‘Tarot Cards for Tech’ to evaluate our design prototype.
These cards served as a guiding force for us to think about dark UI, and how it applies to our own prototype. Some of these ethical issues were definitely important for us to start to think about and address before we got further into incorporating design feedback from user testing.
One of the biggest takeaways stemmed from this series of questions from the card ‘The Siren’:
“What would using your product “too much “ look like? How does your product encourage users to engage, and how does it make it easy to disconnect? In what situations might it be inappropriate or distracting to use your product?”
★ It was clear to us that our prototype is not intended to be a replacement for users needing professional mental health care, rather, it is a supplementary tool to promote feelings of calmness and relaxation. Confusing this could be problematic if users try to use our prototype, as a permanent means of escape from mental health concerns. This could definitely create challenges for users, and might not be in their best interest for their wellness long term.
We also looked at the card ‘The BFFs’, which made us reflect on the question:
“How does your product change or create new ways for people to interact?”
★ In this regard, our product lacks some of the interpersonal connections that group meditation can promote as we read about in Järvelä et al. 2021. Thus, in improving our design in the future — time and resources permitting — we would try and explore the possible ways to integrate a communal experience into our VR prototype, perhaps with a feature like group space expeditions that would allow multiple users to take part in the experience concurrently.
We conducted a few user tests using Google’s Cardboard VR glasses to see if our intent for the prototype resonated emotionally.
We ran user tests in two different ways:
★ We gave users the glasses without any prompt and allowed them to explore and interact with the VR intuitively. We then asked these users about their thoughts on the experience, as well as what emotions they felt while interacting with Space-Z.
★ We asked users to sit down while using Space-Z while practicing deep breathing. We then asked these users if Space-Z aided or hindered their deep breathing, and what emotions they felt interacting with Space-Z.
We tested Space-Z with 10 participants (7 users freely exploring and 3 users trying deep breathing) and the feedback we received was mostly positive.
Positive User Feedback:
★ Many users enjoyed the realism in our design and appreciated the attention to detail with shading, light, and music.
★ The VR experience itself also was noted as immersive, creating a sense of ‘being transported’ for users.
★ We also had some feedback on which emotions users were feeling, which were feelings of awe, wonder, and calmness — which were definitely aligned with the goals we had for this prototype in the design process.
★ According to one user, the music proved to be a big factor in creating the calming ambiance for Space-Z, as well as the steadily moving planets.
★ In later user tests where users were sitting and practicing deep breathing, they reported that the music flowed with their breathing and the view of the steady-moving planets helped them relax.
Transcript of a user test:
Negative User Feedback:
★ Some users reported glitchiness while navigating in Space-Z which distracted from the realistic, immersive experience when they were looking around.
★ There were not as many planets/ solar systems to explore — several users expressed their desire for more elements in Space-Z.
★ It took a while for some users to find the planets, with the experience being somewhat disorienting, especially in initial user tests where the users were standing and had a larger range of motion to explore Space-Z.
Incorporating this feedback into our project was important for us, and we worked on smoothing out the navigation as best we could. With more time, we would definitely like to add more elements to Space-Z but would be mindful of the tradeoff between having more elements to explore and overstimulation, especially since our goal was to provide a virtual space for relaxation or meditation. Adding more elements in the future would also require extensive user testing to really pin down the fine line between creating a calming experience that is interesting to users, but not too busy or overstimulating either.
Users also brought up the music. The music did not play the same for all devices and all browsers. In some user tests, we had to open a laptop to play the music because it refused to play on some phones. In the future, we would like to find a better system of allowing the music to play automatically for all the users the moment the users open the software.
Overall, the results of our user tests show that we were successful in creating a relaxing experience for users that evoked feelings of calmness and aided in deep breathing. However, there is room to build out additional galaxies/planets to create a more interesting experience and smooth out bugs when playing music.
Class Feedback
We were able to present our demo video in class and receive feedback from HCI students.
In class, we received a lot of feedback. Specifically, we noticed this common feedback:
★ The music was very relaxing. However, users thought it would be cool to have multiple songs on a loop for more variety.
★ People liked the work we did with lightning to make it more accurate to how planets actually look.
★ Some users thought that it was not immediately obvious it was our own version of space and not a model of the Earth’s solar system.
★ Some users wanted more movement control such as a way to control speed, rotation, and zoom-in/zoom-out abilities
★ People expressed that they wanted more galaxies to explore
Based on the feedback, we have a new future goal of adding an additional UI with custom controls and an introduction scene to prepare users for the experience they are about to have. These custom controls may include speed, rotation, and the ability to zoom/move or remain fixed.
Conclusion
Overall, Space-Z creates an immersive and relaxing virtual reality experience for users who want to get away from distractions in the outside world and focus on their mindfulness. Using A-Frame, we were able to create a prototype of a slow-moving solar system with planets that allows users to listen to calming music and explore the universe.
We learned a lot about designing for emotion, particularly about how our VR designs can be used in unexpected or potentially harmful ways, such as if they were to view it as a substitute for professional mental health services.
Through user testing, we were able to see how users were actually interacting with Space-Z and received. We also practiced thinking through value-sensitive design by thinking through the value tension between exploration (adding more elements to create a more interesting experience but potentially overstimulating users) versus relaxation (keeping the solar system simple but potentially boring).
Future Goals:
★ Add asteroids or asteroid belt.
★ Make shooting star more random.
★ Add more planets and more universes to give people more to explore and discover.
★ Prioritize finding a balance between exploration and relaxation
★ Prevent users from moving through planets.
★ Add different songs on a loop
★ Create a new UI with custom settings, or introduction part to prepare the user for the experience.
Works Cited
Järvelä, S., Cowley, B., Salminen, M., Jacucci, G., Hamari, J., & Ravaja, N. (2021). Augmented Virtual Reality Meditation: Shared Dyadic Biofeedback Increases Social Presence Via Respiratory Synchrony. ACM Transactions on Social Computing, 4(2), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1145/3449358
Waterworth, J., & Waterworth, E. (2004). Relaxation Island: A Virtual Tropical Paradise. Proceedings of BCS HCI2004: Designing for Life. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250405476_RELAXATION_ISLAND_A_VIRTUAL_TROPICAL_PARADISE
