- Role: designer and producer
- Platform: PC
- Development tool: Unity
-Development time: fifteen weeks
-Client: Verizon Wireless w/ dr. Jessica Hammer
Abode was a semester long project at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center. It was part of a larger ongoing research project between the ETC's Dr. Jessica Hammer and Verizon Wireless. The larger VR Home project is interested in exploring the concept of virtual reality homes, where people can connect with friends and family around the world through virtual reality. The project's aspiration is that in the future people have their own virtual reality homes that they can customize, decorate, live in, and invite guests to.
For the Abode project team's part of the project, we explored methods and rituals related to invitation, entry, and exit in the VR home space. We also explored the process of inviting someone to leave your VR home, which we have called "exvitation."
In terms of project format, our plan was to create weekly design prototypes that explore methods of inviting friends over, entering VR homes, "exviting" someone from a VR home, and exiting a VR home. As the team's designer, I was in charge of designing the prototypes and aiding the programmers with their implementation.
For my process, I began with brainstorming ideas in a design journal. I would spend a pre-determined amount of time, usually an hour or two, brainstorming anywhere between 6-12 ideas. The brainstorm process consisted of writing out a 1-2 sentence overview of the concept, and then writing a few sentences detailing important parts of the prototype. Along with that, I would list design affordances and challenges for each prototype, usually in list format. After I had a diverse list, I would narrow the options down to 2-3, which I would flesh out into more detailed designs, complete with a user journey map, overhead diagram, storyboard, and if necessary, a mood board. I would then show those designs to my project team and faculty advisers to get feedback, and after considering their feedback and comparing the different designs, I would choose a design to be developed into a prototype. For the final prototype designs, I would write up a design doc that the programmers could use for implementation, complete with a step-by-step user journey breakdown, a design rationale for choosing the design, and a section for playtest feedback to be completed after the prototype was finished and tested. The latter section was used as a resource to inform subsequent designs. Once all of the documentation was completed, I would then create an initial layout of the prototype space in VR using both free assets from the Unity asset store and any previously completed assets by the 3D artists that worked well in the space. The space would then go through an internal playtesting and iteration process until we were happy with the space, and then I would pass the prototype over to the programmers for interaction implementation and prototype completion.
The Garden
To see my process in action, below are all of the design artifacts for the garden prototype, listed in order of completion:
The original overhead diagram for the garden. This was used to help iron out the concept and feel of the space. The original concept had two separate pavilions that acted as individual spaces or rooms for both the host and guest, with the central area being a meeting grounds for the two. I ended up cutting one of the pavilions due to space constraints. I wanted the entire garden space to feel like a meeting grounds, and I wanted to emphasize togetherness in the aesthetic and composition of the space.
Mood Boards
In the early stages of the ideation process, I created mood boards to help capture the essence of both the aesthetic and functionality of the garden space. I used these to convey my vision to both my team and the client, and they helped greatly in assuring that everyone shared a common vision for the project.
Above is a mood board that conveys the general feel of the space.
Above is a mood board that explores possible invitation methods for the garden space. This was used in the prototype ideation and brainstorming process.
Above is a mood board that explores possible interactions within the garden space. We decided not to focus on interactions within the spaces themselves this semester, so we decided to document interaction ideas and instead just focus on invitation, entry, exvitation, and exit in VR homes.
Preliminary Playtesting
Before I began creating the virtual space in Unity, I worked with the User Researcher on the team to figure out which user preferences we wanted to test in terms of interactions and activities within the garden space. Once we compiled the list, I designed a preliminary playtest in the form of a poster board where users ranked different garden activities from most enjoyable to least enjoyable. We did this to get an idea of what types of activities people were most eager to engage in within the space, as we wanted to design a VR space that users felt comfortable in and would want to spend a lot of time in. We felt that both of those criteria were important for both playtesting and for the solvency of the product in general.
Above is the poster of six interactions that we tested with users. The top left is sitting at a tea table (either meditating or talking; we left some intentional ambiguity there), the top right is picking fruit, the middle left is planting seeds, the middle right is feeding birds, the bottom left is feeding fish in a fish pond, and the bottom right is throwing coins into a wishing well.
Users then ranked their preferences from 1 (most preferable) to 6 (least preferable). We asked users the question to "Rank the following garden activities from 1 to 6 based on how interested you would be in doing them in VR." I used our playtest data in designing the VR garden space with the goal of optimizing guest experience and to get them excited about going into the VR space.
VR Garden
Above is the first iteration of the garden space. I originally included a fence to define the space and to make guests feel protected, but we received feedback from playtesters saying that they felt trapped in the space and cutoff from the rest of the environment. They wanted to have the feeling of being able to travel anywhere, even if they couldn't actually do so.
First iteration from alternate perspective. I placed a wishing well in the space with a bowl of coins next to it. The coins were meant to be thrown into the wishing well as a simple interaction for the space.
Above is the second iteration of the garden space. I changed the space quite significantly for this iteration. First, I removed the fence to open up the space and make it feel more integrated with the surrounding environment. Second, I added more flowers to the space to make it feel more like an actual garden. Third, I moved the wishing well out of the Vive space because it was proving to be too much of a distraction within the space. Our primary goal was to encourage conversation in the space, and to focus on entry and exit rituals for VR home, so we didn't want guests to become too distracted by non-related interactions within the space. Lastly, I added a house to the space to make the garden feel more like it belonged to a larger home space.
Above is the final iteration of the garden space. I focused on making the environment look more natural and optimizing object placement, as well as resizing the house to be the correct size.