A UX Designer’s take on the Apple Vision Pro: Part 1- The Beginning
TLDR
Vision Pro is XR re-invented and re-pitched to the world as Spatial Computing with never seen before fidelity and input interactions. It has all the Apple ingredients that will make you re think everything about this technology. Apart from it’s inaccessible price point, everything about it is worth celebrating for its sheer design and engineering Marvels. It unlocks new human capabilities and opens up new avenues for designers, developers, businesses and creatives, only this time it is actually real and not some distant vision. Yet, it is just the first iteration and it will only get better.
In this article, Ill cover:
1. Reasons for my excitement for Vision Pro
2. My first time trying the Vision Pro and my high level takeaways at the end of 2 weeks exploration.
3. What makes Vision Pro different
4. Why the big tech cares and what is in it for the designers
Longer version-Introduction
The UX Design profession has been through all the major computing waves over the years. From the PC era to the smartphone era and now to the era of AI. But with AI, the profession seems to have hit the ceiling of creative expansion, innovation and thought leadership. And then there is XR(AR/VR).
XR has always been this niche immature kid knocking at our door, but has always been ignored while facing a wide variety of adoption challenges. Although it was always adopted by enthusiasts branching mostly from the gaming domain. But no matter who uses it, everyone has acknowledged that one of the biggest adoption challenge for this technology has been the User Experience.
The UX profession being currently limited to 2D flat screen mono-sensory experiences was always in line to be disrupted by AI. XR has always presented the opportunity to designers to smash that figurative ceiling and enter a new realm of creativity.
But then again, why would a designer care about XR as it has always been and still is, a niche immature kid trying get attention, especially when there is no guidebook or standards that tells us how to handle this kid.
Enters Apple with their device Apple Vision Pro. A lot of experts and analysts says that it is the “macintosh moment” of XR. Suddenly, the whole industry cares because Apple cares.
Apple has reinvented the XR headset by redefining the user experience principles using two of their key ingredients, Interaction Design and Display engineering with a potential to set new standards. Vision Pro has it’s first generation shortcomings, but the design choices made for this product is foundational for the XR industry and aspirational for designers, developers, creators and businesses to create new experiences and tell new stories in ways that was never possible before.
Vision Pro in it’s current stage, like every other AR/VR headset that existed previously, can have the same generic arc from being on people’s faces to their shelves due to it’s form factor and lack of enough apps.
But fortunately Apple positions this product as a computer as opposed to a headset that has most use cases in productivity and entertainment.
This product sets a blueprint of the future where it might be the only computer we may need, disrupting every form of existing 2D flat screen based computers and devices. It also have a lot seeds implanted for it’s users to not only come back to the device but also make it meaningful.
In this series of articles, Ill talk about these seeds and how Designers has the opportunity to play a key role in taking those seeds and lead the next phase of digital products, apps and experiences.
What is Apple Vision Pro?
For people, who doesn’t know what Vision Pro is, let me try to state it in one sentence.
Vision Pro is Apple’s first wearable Spatial Computer (or traditionally known as a AR/VR headset) that enables you to see and interact with the computer displays overlayed virtually on top of your real space allowing the displays to be of any size, any form with added depth and 3D elements.
Yes, when you wear the Vision Pro, the first thing you see is your real world.
It is a wearable computer that is NOT restricted to the limitations or the boundaries of any size of the physical screen displays and everything you view and interact with inside a computer, comes out of the physical screen to exist into your space.
PCs introduced us to personal computing, cloud computing shifted the compute powers to the internet, mobile computing put our computers into our phones and made them smart, spatial computing is all about bringing the computer into the physical world, allowing a seamless blending between the digital and the real world. You can learn more about Spatial Computing and AR/VR/XR in detail.
Reality check
Before I start, first let’s “face” the fact that it is still a computer strapped to your face.
Yes, it is heavy and is not meant for wearing longer hours. Apple doesn’t prescribe this due to a limited 2 hour battery life.
The wearability and comfort is often debatable depending on what you want to do with this device, but for the scope of this article, ill park it for now. Honestly, everybody won’t like wearing it until it comes down to a form factor of a regular lightweight glasses.
But until that day arrives(which can be sooner than we think), lets focus on the captivating experiences this device offers that almost makes you forget that you are wearing something on your face (provided you are in a room with a cool temperature :-), especially in India)
A bit of a background for my excitement leading towards trying out the Vision Pro
As a UX Designer, with a background in Architecture and Industrial Design and as a storytelling enthusiast, AR/VR tech has always fascinated me. The very fact of combining your physical world with the digital world was astounding to me. But I never found a usable AR/VR device that I would be interested to buy or even explore because if it’s sheer lack of focus on the user experience quality and downright horrible low resolution displays that gave me nausea and motion sickness. I mostly resorted to designing for 2D AR/VR experiences in smartphones.
I always believed that this tech has a huge user experience problem.
I was always a fan of Apple’s design language and their attention to user experience details and when I found out in 2018 that Apple is working on it’s own AR/VR headset, I was absolutely thrilled. I believed only Apple will be able to solve the basics of AR/VR user experience problems and make it more natural, intuitive and easy to interact with it. Their OS solutions might even set a new UX standard for the industry, much like what happened with iPhones and iPads.
So, I eagerly waited for WWDC 2023 where Apple was rumoured to launch it’s next big “one more thing” product.
When 5th June, 2023 arrived and along with the world I watched Apple unveil it’s first Spatial Computer Vision Pro, I knew that Apple has cracked it. Apple has cracked perhaps the most difficult problem(s) to solve in the AR/VR space and that is, the user’s input model. Much like how iPhone ditched the stylus and introduced multi-touch as the primary input model for navigating smartphones, Vision Pro gave us eye and hand tracking allowing users to naturally navigate an app via simply looking and pinching to select and ditching the hand held controllers that was a norm for previous AR/VR headset as the primary input device.
Another chronic problem in this space was the user interface. Many different companies in the past have tried several different ways several times to define what an AR/VR user interface will be like. But Apple chose to go with simplicity. They took out many pages out of it’s own design language book. They kept a familiar App home screen much like the iPad and kept it’s own iOS and iPadOS frosted glass look for the window UI. They even went ahead to add shadows for each AR components, be it a window or a 3D model, casted on the real space to make the apps feel part of your real environment. This was an “Aha” moment for me.
All of it I saw on a youtube video, but I knew in order to really fathom all of these, I had to experience it. So I waited for another 8 months for the official launch to finally lay my hands on the Vision Pro.
When I finally experienced it, I was convinced that the future that was promised has arrived and I knew that we are now in a new world of full of new possibilities.
What I was not ready for was how unbelievably good 4K display resolution clarity is and MOST IMPORTANTLY, THE LATENCY is so good (that too without any jitters), that made me go in my mind —
“Whoah! finally, no nausea”.
The display and latency are one of the biggest breakthrough of this device(along with eye and hand tracking).
Day 1- My first time wearing the Vision Pro
Apart from my regular BAU work reasons, on 25th March, 2024, I had another special reason to travel to my company office in Chennai. I was given the opportunity to test drive the Vision Pro and make sure my colleagues also gets chance to get a demo. The package arrived late in the day and it was like seeing a dream come true for me that I was having for almost 6 years. I have seen possibly every tech reviews, read every article on it to understand what people are really talking and thinking about it. Overall, I had a lot of pre-conceived notions before trying it out and because I already own a Meta Quest 3, I kind of knew what to expect. But I didn’t know how it will make me feel. I knew at the core that it was an impressive piece of technology and it will blow people’s mind but what I really want is for people to see beyond the impressiveness and the hype and look far into the possibilities and the disruptions this might bring. With all these thoughts, I unboxed the package and I finally put on the Vision Pro (after figuring out the hardware and wearability nitty-grittis).
To be very clear at the beginning, Vision Pro is designed to be used at indoors and mostly in a seated position with very light movements. It is not designed for high intensity movement (like the Quest 3 allows), at least not in the 1st gen. Also it is important to be in a room with good enough lighting to make sure the camera passthrough works well.
After putting it on, the first thing that I saw itself blew me away. Actually, it was not what I saw but how it showed me. The moment you put it on, it is all dark for a split second and then it slowly fades away from the dark to open and show you the real world through the passthrough camera. Almost mimicking how our eyes work when we wake up from a deep sleep and we slowly open them to see the world.
This clever bit of camera passthrough trick is unlike I have ever seen in any previous headset before. In every passthrough based headset (like the Quest 3), the moment you put them on, they show the camera feed immediately, almost abruptly, which is what it is supposed to do, but Vision Pro added this small fading effect to make sure that the user has a comfortable transition between seeing the real world with his/her own eyes and seeing the real world through Vision Pro. It is almost like Apple is saying, “wake up, there is a new way to see your world now, literally and figuratively”. Fascinating and scary at the same time.
It is surprising to see no tech reviewers or any article talk about this. But now, I think it is kind of expected to overlook this because good design is almost so natural that it is invisible. Sadly, there was no way to screen capture this. This small detail is just one of the many delightful details Vision Pro has by design. Right after this micro detail, I am greeted with the Apple “hello”.
After a very stringent Apple ID logging in experience(you need to have a US Apple ID to get this running), I was able to get to the hand and eye calibration process. This calibration experience was intuitive and a delight. Apple doesn’t expect you to naturally know how to navigate this device and so it needs to setup your hands for the hand tracking which acts as the mouse and your eyes for eye tracking that acts as the cursor. This calibration experience naturally prepares you for navigating all the Apps and experiences. Also, this is a process to be followed every time you share the device with others in Guest mode(a mode that needs to be toggled on to share the device with anyone else apart from you), which is kind of important and annoying at the same time. Now, after pressing the digital crown on top of the device, I can finally see the App home screen and this is where my exploration starts.
Day 14- End of my test drive
2 weeks have passed since I have first put on the device and throughout these days, I practically lived and breathed the Vision Pro. At the end of 2 weeks I was exhausted, but I had enjoyed each and every second of it. I had not anticipated the overwhelming amount of hidden small details that made me think of how much care and thought Apple’s design and engineering team has put into this.
There was a mix of excitement and weariness in me due to the sheer volume of explorations and breakdown of each experiences I had to do (because they are so good) along with the number of demos I had to give to my colleagues. Mid-way during my exploration, there were even feelings like “this device is so good that I am scared about the future” and often feeling of loneliness. Yes, I felt every range of emotions that too without owning it.
At the end of my 2 weeks, I really slept well, not because that I lost sleep due to the Vision Pro (actually I slept really well) but I was finally relieved that I don’t have to explore any further and overwhelm my mind with it’s brilliance.
Ill pack all my experiences in detail in my following articles.
Initial takeaways- What makes Vision Pro different
VR headsets has traditionally seen a trajectory from an initial hype, excitement during the trial phase to a forgotten memory and declining enthusiasm due to lack of enough engaging or meaningful experiences.
VR so far has been like taking a theme park adventure ride. You are thrilled and amused the first time you experience it and everything is great when the adrenaline rush is at it’s peak, often leading to nausea since your mind and body wasn’t prepared for it. But once you know what the experience is like, you really don’t feel like going back and ride it again because it din’t mean anything for you apart from the thrill. The ride was exciting but overwhelming too.
But with Vision Pro, Apple takes a softer, calmer and non-overwhelming approach while giving more control and choice to the users on how they want to view certain things depending on their comfort by making it a Mixed Reality first device. With Mixed Reality, things are starting to change slowly, mostly because unlike VR, mixed reality(or like some says advanced AR) blends the digital world with the real world and doesn’t isolate the user from the real world. Vision Pro also addresses the major user experience gaps in this technology by including many key design choices that makes you want to stay with the device.
When you take off the Vision Pro, it feels good to come back to reality but there is also a feeling like you have come back from a beautiful workcation trip in the mountains. An experience you aspire to go back to because it meant something, something very personal that can’t be described in words yet. Along with that, it gives you a plethora of visualisation and control capabilities that almost feels natural. As if, these capabilities were always there with you in hiding and only now they have been unlocked.
Often, a good product is not only about what you can do with it, but also how it makes you feel. Vision Pro is one of them(even The Meta Quest 3, which Ill talk about separately)
When one tries an AR/VR headest for the first time, the experience can often be equated with having your first car drive or your first aeroplane flight. The human mind and the body experiences something completely new(often nauseating and scary for many) but with Vision Pro, it is all that except without the nausea and it gives a peak into the future of computing.
Another interesting and a simple analogy on AR/VR comes from Steves Jobs himself where in one of his old interviews he spoke about a lack of “headphones alternatives for Videos”.
One of the biggest prominent feature in Vision Pro is Eyesight, that lets others see your eyes when you are wearing the device. This design choice is foundational to make AR/VR devices less isolating and feel more natural when someone wearing the device has conversations with people in the same room. This also shows how much love, care and attention to details Apple has given to the design and this also solidifies Apple’s stance on design led decisions.
Another key and somehow hidden factor is how “Accessibility friendly” the device is. It not only has varied accessibility options, from options to interact with hands and eye but also interacting with voice and even sound input. The accessibility options makes Vision Pro not only the most accessible XR headset but also the most accessible computer. Refer this video for more. Honestly, as a UX Designer this gives me a lot of hope and assume that we are in the right direction.
In the time of fast, fleeting and attention hungry digital world, Vision Pro is a welcome change that lets you pause time and appreciate small details and evokes humane emotions unlike any digital device ever created.
In my following articles, Ill talk more on what makes this device standout from the other existing devices.
Why the big tech cares about XR?
With every key inventions, humans have discovered a new superpower that makes the previous alternative solutions redundant. Vision Pro is a key invention in the XR field and only time will tell what it will make redundant. But it does help unlock a superpower.
One of the biggest value of XR is that it unlocks a superpower for human beings and that is, “Teleportation” (more in a digital sense)- an ability to bridge the distance gaps magically by teleporting the digital world to your space (MR/Spatial Computing) or you being teleported to a digital version of the real or fictional world with something or someone(VR). All of these are achieved by great quality of visualisation, feeling of presence and more sense of agency. Vision Pro ticks all the above boxes and it will only get better.
This superpower is the hidden gold rush that all the major big tech companies are rushing towards despite numerous false starts and lower consumer interests. They clearly know that there are a lot of work to be done and the billion dollar cash burning is simply to achieve the UX qualities that makes “Teleportation” believable and the optimum hardware form factor that makes this technology more easier to adopt. On top of that, AI plays a huge role in this (more on this later).
As Apple entered this field, the gold rush became more evident and validated a market fit for this technology.
Why should the designers care?
Well, why not?
Primarily, this device or XR in general is an experiential medium. It takes a lot of engineering nuances to build XR experiences and often times it can lead to over-engineering. If the experience is even slightly uncanny and deviates away even a little from the line of believability, the immersion breaks apart. A design led mindset to take optimum engineering decision is the key here and a designer has the knowledge of the craft required to make XR experiences truly compelling, engaging and valuable. Vision Pro is primarily a product of a design led mindset.
Apple’s products is generally built following design first principles and Vision Pro is no exception. It is a new toy/tool that provides an opportunity to push our creative pursuits and define the next phase of human computer interaction but with good guardrails and standards in place.
It also allows us to expand the design landscape beyond just creating great UI by collaborating with other disciplines such as sound design, space design, game design, animation, filmmaking and make multi-sensory, rich and believable immersive experiences for not only consumers but also enterprises and businesses.
Interestingly, on the narrative of AI vs Humans, since humans themselves have not barged into this medium too much, AI too has little to zero idea on the foundations of AR/VR experiences. Using AI, Designers has the opportunity lead and create that foundation.
In a simple developer’s language, if AI is the future of backend, XR is the future of frontend.
Currently, with Vision Pro Apple has also setup it’s app store platforms and tooling ecosystems that makes it easier for designers and developers to easily onboard to create apps and experiences.
Too much to pack in one article
These series of articles are a breakdown of the key design choices made for the Vision Pro and the “how” behind evoking the emotions that makes it different than other headsets. I have tried to segment the articles in different parts, where in this article I gave you a background of my journey leading towards trying out the Vision Pro for the first time and my initial key takeaways on why in principle the device is different than others.
In the next few articles Ill talk about the device’s core UX foundations, my experience with it’s native features and the third party apps, my experience of giving demos to my colleagues and the observations I had. Lastly, I’ll talk about how it impacts the Design profession, what are the first steps to take in order start designing for XR and more deep dive into how this platform gives Designers a superpower to be on the front seat and play a critical role in unlocking this device’s true strengths and capabilities to make the world ready to embrace this technology.
To conclude and most importantly, my initial biggest takeaway would be:- One really needs to experience this device hands on. Judging it based on tech reviews and videos on 2D flat screens or even this article is like judging a restaurant and it’s chef from food vlogs without ever eating there.
So if you get a chance to experience it, please go ahead and try it for at least 30 mins and trust me it will be worth it.
Part 2 coming soon!
