Simplifying User Interactions with the Oculus Touch — CV1
At the start of 2017, Air Canada approached Neutral Digital to create a VR experience to promote their new 787 Dreamliner Business Class seats. We had the pleasure of designing the digital experience and providing the hardware, which would be shipped to international exhibitions and events and used by thousands of people around the world. You can see the project for yourself here.
During the testing of the experience, we encountered a continual issue — users would accidentally click the ‘Oculus Home’ button on the controllers. This was disruptive for users as it took them out of the experience, so we really needed to find a workaround.
The Process
The Oculus Touch Controllers are designed with a button that allows access to Oculus Home — the ‘menu’ central to the Oculus Rift experience — at any time. Users often pressed this button accidentally while getting used to the experience and discovering the controls, meaning they would exit the whole experience without actually wanting to. Pretty confusing for observers, too!
Our initial approach toward finding a solution was, naturally, digital. We tried to disable the button inputs using a key remapper or through modifications built in Unreal. However, the manufacturer had made sure that the Home button was impossible to tamper with because of how central its function is to the hardware. This meant we had to pursue a physical solution.
Initial Ideas
Applying a cap to the face of the controller was the logical solution, and also brought the look in line with users’ expectations of an interactive installation — away from the ‘gamer aesthetic’ of the stock controller.
After a quick round of ideation and sketching, we used 3D software to mock up three designs that we found promising.
We produced quick, rough 3D prints of each design and had the mock ups in hand overnight ready to evaluate on the controllers.
Small batch manufacturing
We went with our second design as we felt it more closely matched the aesthetic of the Oculus Touch Controllers, and made a couple of minor adjustments to the height and joystick cutout before moving on to small batch manufacturing. This final iteration was printed on a Stratasys Objet500 Connex3 using VeroWhitePlus material. The high resolution of the prints combined with the rigidity of the material meant that, asides from the removal of the wax-based support material, only a minimal amount of filler primer and sanding was required to get a really professional finish.
We applied layers of paint finished with a top coat of varnish. The caps were then attached to the controllers using double-sided tape, allowing the caps to remain firmly fixed to the controllers but also ensuring they could be removed when the Home button was actually needed again.
So far, the caps have been an integral part of several hundred public demos in Paris and Toronto. They have significantly improved the usability of the controllers — it’s clear that the users are better able to partake in our experience with the simplified control model. We happily offer custom solutions such as these and are excited to see what the future holds for creating bespoke solutions for our clients. For additional details on the project, our case study can be read here.
We’re happy to announce that we are making these openly available to use with a Creative Commons licence. Visit this link to download the .stl files to 3D print your own. We have plans to improve these caps in the future so stay up-to-date with their progress, as well as other exciting developments throughout 2018, by following us on Twitter @neutraldigital.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to iMakr for their next day 3D printing service which allowed us to get our prototypes in hand and make quick design decisions.
Also, thanks to Sandika Dhawan for the swift turnaround of our final 3D printed caps and her knowledge and tips on elevating them to a professional standard.
