YVR is a small collective of designers dedicated to questioning and understanding virtual reality as a medium for both practical and creative expression, while always asking “Why VR?”
What’s so special about Virtual Reality?
You’ve probably already heard about virtual reality. If you haven’t — get a clue.
Virtual reality is the biggest change in consumer-ready computer interfaces since the Graphical User Interface (GUI) first appeared in 1973. VR takes our traditional, flat, displays (phones, laptops, etc…) and literally adds another dimension to them. The addition of this dimension is allowing us to create and consume experiences that were previously only possible in science fiction. We’re closer to the holodeck than not, people — get hyped.
If there was ever a time in all of history to indulge in fantasies like traveling to other worlds, breathing underwater, or having super powers, the time is now.
But with great power…
What works in one medium doesn’t always directly translate to an other. Just because we can simulate Iron Man-style flying controls in VR, does that make it enjoyable or just “cool”?
Rather than sit and speculate on what works and doesn’t in VR, we’re using our collective knowledge of design, human-computer interaction, and imagination to get our hands dirty through research, play testing, prototyping, and observation.
We’re dedicated to finding answers to questions such as:
- Is VR the right thing for a given use case?
- Why are things better or worse in VR?
- How do we design experiences that accelerate VR towards wide-spread adoption?
- Can experiences in VR follow you into the real world?
- If fear can be amplified through VR immersion, can empathy?
- Where does virtual experiential learning trump traditional classroom-style passive learning?
- How do you effectively user test for VR?
Who are we?
Austin McCasland
Austin is a user experience designer based out of San Francisco, CA. His undergraduate background is in interactive sculptural new media, and he has a Masters degree in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University. He is currently employed by Parsable, helping to bring field work into the 21st century. In his spare time, you can find him creating virtual reality experiences, art installations, or tech experiments, and talking nonstop about all of them.
Check out some of his work!
Jared Lodwick
Jared is a user experience designer and design community advocate based in San Francisco. Currently he is employed at JPMorgan Chase working on tools to help expedite financial processes and better educate customers about understanding their finances. In the past he has worked on healthcare technology, released free design resources, and has an extensive Pixate video tutorial library. You can find him around the web on dribble, twitter, or join some conversations with him in the UX Design Slack community.
To see some of his other work visit his portfolio.
Andre Le
Andre is an interdisciplinary product designer based out of San Francisco, CA with a Masters in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University and design experience in the technology, financial, advertising, and non-profit industries.
He is currently at Parsable helping to build a design team and product that unifies industrial teams and brings transparency to a workflow filled with paper forms and binders.
When he’s not working — OK, who are we kidding — he’s always working on something, ranging from mind-controlled drones to teaching others how to experiment on their own. Occasionally, you can find him posting to Flipboard and Twitter or updating his LinkedIn or portfolio.
