Author: Buerfei
The full text contains 3278 words and 21 pictures. It takes 9 minutes to read
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I worked as an art designer for 10 years and a product manager for several years. Last year, I was hired by a film and television company by accident (sorry I can’t reveal the name of the company). My boss thought my product and interaction were good, so he asked me if I wanted to engage in VR, saying that the company was developing VR products. I was so hot in my head that I immediately agreed without thinking.
One year has passed, and I have no regret at all about entering VR industry. No matter how I look at it, VR is part of the future and cannot escape.
1. Current problems of VR interface interaction design
At present, there are not many companies that actually do VR products, only a few at home and abroad, so there are only a few people who do VR interface.
To form a system and methodology, it is natural to need a large number of practitioners to participate in the line, and now the problem may be that everyone is feeling the stones in the river.
So here’s what we can see:
It looks like a flat interface board in a virtual space, almost nothing changes in the interface.
So why is that? The question is simple:
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VR is still in its infancy, still feeling its way in terms of interaction and design. Think of mobile phones in the feature phone era, where UI/UX is almost never needed.
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Major vendors focus a lot on hardware, and the software experience lags behind. This is similar to the development of smart phones. At the beginning, hardware parameters were emphasized. When hardware configuration reached a certain height, software experience began to be emphasized. Apple can be said to be the best example. It is precisely because the requirements and quality of interaction design reach a high level that Makes Apple’s products stand out among many other products.
Therefore, WHAT I want to say is very simple. No matter what equipment is used, it should be used by people in the end. Whether it is good or not depends largely on whether the interactive experience is good or not. So even in the early stages of VR, good interaction design can greatly improve the product experience.
Then I will talk about how to design VR interface one by one based on my study and research in the past few months.
What is the most important thing about VR
Immersion is probably the most important thing for VR, but it may not be easy to understand the term.
This term runs through all aspects of VR design and development, whether you’re making a head-display product, a VR game, or even a panoramic photo, the more immersive you are, the more users will accept it!
For example, the current definition of head-display hardware is generally not high, so the immersion will be greatly reduced. Improving the definition is called one of the most important things in the hardware field at this stage.
What about immersion when it comes to interface interaction design?
Traditional interface design, no matter computer, tablet or mobile phone, is to interact and deal with tasks on a single plane. The most important thing is the smoothness and beauty of interaction.
The addition of space in VR makes users have to process interface information in a relatively complete space, which results in two relatively important factors affecting user experience:
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The relationship between space and users
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The relationship between space and interface
Understanding these two relationships is the cornerstone of a good VR interface and the ultimate factor that affects immersion, so let me first explain how these two relationships work.
1. Relationship between space and users
First of all, what is space? It may be easier to understand from a philosophical concept: space makes things changeable, that is, things can change because of the existence of space.
VR is the way to understand: how to design a space will directly change people’s understanding of things.
If the user is in a forest and the user is in a ruin, the feeling must be different.
So, what kind of space you put your users in is directly related to what kind of experience your product wants them to have. This is Daydream’s space design
Although Google uses Lowpoly’s style, it’s no surprise that Daydream wants to give users a sense of being outside the world.
Take a look at HTC’s design:
I think they probably haven’t figured out what kind of space experience they want to give their users.
This is the relationship between space and people. How to design space will directly affect users’ perception of products.
2. The relationship between space and interface
This concept has already been used in the design of the game’s interface. Take a look at the screenshot below:
The interface and the environment are integrated because the game needs the player to be immersed in the world created by the game, and the interface design needs to match the environment as much as possible.
At present, system-level VR interface design has not reached such a requirement, but it will definitely move in this direction in the future.
Well, that’s a lot of theory, but let’s take a look at how VR interfaces should be designed at this stage.
How should VR interface be designed
To design a good VR user interface, there are three requirements:
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A very immersive virtual environment
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A hierarchy with a simple logical structure
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The information on the page is simple and straightforward
1. Have a very immersive virtual environment
This part needs to be explained in three stages:
The primary stage
A virtual environment that cannot be interacted only provides a simple THREE-DIMENSIONAL space, and most interface functions and interactions are traditional 2D interaction modes. At this stage, the simulation of real space is mostly used to convey a simple sense of environmental immersion for users.
Let’s take a look at the current mainstream interface styles:
Oculus rift 2.0
Google Daydream
windows MR
The processing of these environments is a typical initial stage of VR interface. Basically, we can see that the design logic of the three major factories is basically the same. They all design a virtual space, but the three virtual Spaces do not participate in interaction, but serve as a background to create a space for users to isolate the existing environment.
There are two reasons for this design:
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The function of devices is limited. Since most VR devices have mobile properties, the current mobile devices need too much power consumption to reprocess three dimensional computing, so it is not convenient to design too complex.
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The interface design stage is still in the initial stage, VR interface design is still in the exploratory stage, dealing with the relationship between space and interaction is not mature.
The intermediate stage
Provide a simple interactive space design, interface functions and interactive elements are integrated into the virtual space, users can better into the virtual space.
SteamVR HOME
Advanced stage
Completely realistic virtual space, this stage is not much to say, basically we can see the picture below can imagine:
2. Hierarchical relationships with simple logical structures
According to the design stage of the first virtual environment, we can find that the hierarchical logic design of VR interface can no longer be designed according to the logic of the original PC or mobile phone. Users need a more intuitive interface logic design. If the design of folder folder is designed in the virtual environment, users will definitely be confused.
This is the main screen of the App Store.
Traditional interface processing puts all functions into one plane, which can greatly improve work efficiency.
Here’s the oculus Arcade interface:
We can see that the whole environment is exactly the same as the real arcade hall, and the region is classified according to the brand, so that users can be better immersed in the real environment, as if they are really in the arcade. Here, there is no hierarchy and icon design, only conversion between Spaces.
3. Simple and direct information display on the page
When the user is operating in a virtual space, a simple and non-destructive information presentation will be more effective than complex information presentation.
Let’s take a look at Oculus Rift 2.0’s new interface and compare it to Google Daydream to see the difference:
The main screen of the latest Version of the Oculus Rift 2.0 is shown above, and the main screen of Google Daydream is shown below:
Be clear at a glance, the above interface processing, basically still in the stage of flat UI design, whether it is page stacking, information display, and a computer desktop has no essential difference.
The following Daydream interface is much more clean, simple and effective. Simple page layout, less hierarchical distribution, beautiful icon design make the interface look more friendly and easy to use.
Let’s look at the secondary page:
Oculus’s page is supposed to show all the features, menus, information, and even prices. The reality is that while the page looks perfect, it’s not necessarily efficient for VR users because it takes a lot of time to identify important information.
In contrast, the design of Daydream is basically the simplest. There is no redundant information display, and only the information that users are most concerned about is displayed on the interface. In this way, users can not only improve efficiency, but also try not to destroy the sense of immersion brought by the environment.
Finally, talk about the future of VR interaction
Now VR industry is still in the very early stage, VR interface design is also in the early stage.
So what we can see now is that the interface design still borrows from the traditional interface processing:
First of all, the user learning cost is relatively low, there is no threshold for everyone to use.
Secondly, interactive devices are also developing rapidly. At the beginning, head control and remote control, to the later stage, full gesture recognition, eye tracking, voice control, etc., will also affect the development of VR interaction.
But after all, the ultimate goal of VR interface design is immersion, all means are to let users experience a virtual but very real world and service.
Reprint disclaimer: This article is from “Everyone is a product manager”, search “woshipm”.
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