15 Helpful Tips for Doing Virtual Reality UX Design

Efe Dickson
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Jul 14, 2022

Students and designers alike are more interested than ever in the realm of Virtual Reality as a result of the recent push for the metaverse by Meta (Facebook) and new tech businesses.

Whatever you want to call it—VR, AR, MR, or Metaverse—the design approach is the same across the board.

Designing for virtual reality follows the same user experience (UX) principles as designing for desktop, mobile, or any other platform you are accustomed to.

Other reality-based experiences, such as augmented reality, mixed reality, and extended reality, provide users a variety of experiences.

Using a smartphone's camera, augmented reality (AR) adds digital components to a live scene. Snapchat lenses and the video game Pokemon Go are two examples of augmented reality experiences.

Real-world and virtual items interact in a mixed reality (MR) experience, which includes aspects of both AR and VR. Microsoft's HoloLens is one of the most noteworthy early mixed reality devices, and the technology is just now beginning to take off.

Over the last three decades, the market has given designers a lot of trustworthy work, and it is now shifting to a new paradigm of vibrant 3D content. Even the most cutting-edge 2D screen interactions will appear tiresome and stale in comparison to the VR experience, which will be fundamentally based on sound, touch, depth, and sensation.

Many of the advantages of training in a physical setting are also offered by VR, but without the associated safety issues. A person can quickly remove the headset or change the experience to make it less overwhelming if they start to feel overwhelmed. This one basic statistic indicates that discovering ways to use VR for training should be a top priority for specialized businesses like healthcare, the military, law enforcement, and so on.

The premise for effective interface design in VR is the user's place in the environment.

In light of this, the following is a list of 15 excellent practices for designing VR user experiences.

1. Develop a credible virtual experience. Effective virtual worlds require perspective. Virtual worlds should replicate real-world settings. The position and height of the camera are crucial. Think of experiencing virtual reality while seated at a desk and feeling six feet tall. Adding depth cues, such as lighting, shadows, and backdrops, helps to create a convincing 3D scene. In other words, people are more likely to connect with an environment that is more thorough and properly sized.

2. Engage users fully: The ideal experience is one that makes consumers forget they're in a virtual setting. The users have options thanks to the agency. Although users should be guided, it is ultimately up to them how they choose to engage with items. Users are merely observers if there are no interactive aspects present in the experience.

3. Maintain consistency in interactions: Maintaining a fidelity contract requires consistency across interactive elements. Otherwise, users can become confused about what is interactive and what isn't, which would add to their cognitive burden. To indicate interactive capacity, visual and auditory signals should be employed consistently. Feedback should also be given both during and after interactions.

4. Give the user a defined role to play: turn them from observers to participants. Users should understand the purpose of the experience and what their objectives are. A brief training session gives consumers a sensation of control while allowing them to adjust to the virtual world. Users can interact with the material through interactive components, moving from passive observation to active participation. A compelling experience is produced when rich storytelling is combined with interactive components.

5. Utilize the senses: use sensory components to track feedback and interaction cues. Using audio for spatial location helps to achieve immersion by reinforcing a sense of responsiveness and space. People get a feeling of their environment through visual components. These effects, in addition to being used for user interface components, can be used to urge activities by, for example, highlighting specific elements in the environment.

Bringing users' focus: When trying to get people's attention, be thoughtful and intentional. In virtual reality situations, consumers are easily overloaded.

Two typical user replies to be aware of:

Detective mode: These users probe every aspect of a setting. Students will look for context in everything they encounter. Avoid adding anything to the VR environment that has no use.
When consumers put on a headset for the first time, toddler mode appears. Usually, they block off all external stimuli and concentrate on investigating their surroundings. They fall in love with the depth and interaction of their environment. Don't begin the teaching process too soon. Permit users to take their time and explore.

6. Take user comfort and safety into account. Utilize sound design and development techniques to prevent motion sickness. Conflicts between various sensory inputs are the main cause of motion sickness. User testing is vital because of the significant user variability.

7. Work must be done inside the average user's field of view, which ranges from 90 to 110 degrees. If not, consumers could find the experience awkward and unnatural. Allow users to control the length of their sessions and give them the option to pause the experience whenever they like.

8. It is crucial that users have a secure environment in which to work throughout the experience. Make sure they have enough room to move about in the actual world if they are moving around in the virtual world.

9. Create hand interactions that are natural. -The ability for users to use their hands naturally should be provided. It is advised that controllers do not need line of sight so that users can place their hands wherever they are most comfortable, which is typically at their sides or on their lap. Users should be able to interact with items in front of and behind their virtual hands by taking into account how the hands and objects are occluded.

10. Utilize your understanding of physical space.-There are already many meanings and affordances associated with physical things and qualities. Use them to set the correct tone for the experience and demonstrate how items are utilized. Users can better understand what they can and cannot accomplish by being given explicit physical affordances and limits. Color, form, substance, and positioning may all serve as cues to direct a user's interaction with objects in the desired direction.

11 Maintain consistency in interactions: Maintaining a fidelity contract requires consistency across interactive elements. Otherwise, users can become confused about what is interactive and what isn't, which would add to their cognitive burden. To indicate interactive capacity, visual and auditory signals should be employed consistently. Feedback should also be given both during and after interactions.

12 To assist people in getting started, use signals and prompts.-Help is needed for new users to understand what they can and cannot do. Many first-time VR users don't even consider looking around and require some form of trigger, such as motion or voice, to have them move around the environment. Users may learn what they can accomplish and where to go by using signals like lighting, music, eye contact, and visuals.

13. Environment design shouldn't be disregarded: placement matters. According to research, setting people and objects between one and twenty meters away from the user enhances the 3D sensation. Any closer and the UI components might be uncomfortable. If an environment has several elements, each one should be large enough and have enough room.

14. Users control the camera, so interface components should always be static and never change in response to the learner's movements. Instead of relying on sight, interface components should be controlled via controller input (point and click/grab).

15, Text readability may suffer from problems with screen resolution. Avoid employing large text blocks and other intricate user interface components, or think of accessible alternatives.

Conclusion

In our opinion, VR apps with user interfaces (UIs) that are simple to use, that is, UIs that are more similar to what consumers are currently used to with their wearables, phones, tablets, and computers, will make VR a cheap and viable investment for the majority of firms that pursue it.