Recommendations on VR Environmental Design (Part 1)
Insights from experts in architecture, retail, interior design, and hospitality
This is the latest chapter in my research series on what makes a welcoming social VR experience. Social Virtual Reality platforms are working to generate engaging experiences that draw people in and motivate them to return. It led me to wonder — what are the core elements what make humans feeling comfortable and stimulated and turns them into repeat visitors? I gave demos of social VR platforms to nine experts of spatial & social experience design and then asked them for their impressions. Read the study’s introduction here. You can also read part 2 on Owning the Narrative, part 3 on Who is this Space for? part 4 Place Creates the Rules of Behavior, part 5 Context is Comforting, part 6 New people want to be hosted in Social VR, part 7, Retail in VR: What Makes a Good Shopping Experience, and part 8 The Importance of Detail in Virtual Spaces.
In this research series to date, I have shared a lot of quotes and impressions from the spatial design experts. In this article, I want to provide an round up of their recommendations on how to use details in the environment to influence the user’s experience.
USE LIGHTING TO INVITE PEOPLE IN
Big windows and soft lighting were very well received. The experts were quick map on their knowledge of the physical world to VR.
One person perceived lights in one particular night scene as harsh and compared them to being a warehouse. Another person talked about the emotional reaction she had to lighting.
The first place we went into reminded me of office lighting and I was like echhh, who wants that.
Lighting is important tool that you can use to draw out emotional responses from visitors.
USE LIGHTING TO TELL PEOPLE WHERE TO GO
Lighting also signals to people what to do in a space. They will make inferences about where they should be based on the lighting.
I do feel like the world is constricted in the way the level is designed. The kitchen and living room are dark which implies you shouldn’t go over there, they want you to stay in this area. It’s a little confining. I want more opportunity to explore stuff.
In actuality, this person could go to the kitchen or living room, but he made the wrong inference that he was confined to the lit areas. And he chose not to test his assumption.
LET EXPLORATION BE ENJOYABLE
All of the experts enjoyed moving around and interaction with objects in the spaces. Sometimes they were in large virtual spaces and covered a lot of distance:
As I walk through this tunnel… the flooring, the rise and the slope, the overhead is all naturalistic as opposed to a hallway in an office building. It’s pretty cool. I grew up on Halo. One of the things I loved about that game was the scale of the environments. I’m getting the same sense that there are large scale elements in the distance…
Other times, they were in smaller venues and they looked at items on the wall, or on display. A location doesn’t need to be large in order for it to be interesting. Think of puzzle rooms where the space might be very small, but there’s still lots to do and explore.
USE PEOPLE’S EXISTING ASSOCIATIONS WITH SPACE/COLOR WISELY
One of the advantages of testing your experience with a variety of users is you can find out what associations it brings up. For example, does your experience remind people of existing brands?
“This [nightclub] looks like Virgin Airlines, with all the neon.”
If looking like Virgin Airlines reminds your target users of cool stuff, that’s a fine association to have. It’s just important to identify what those associations are early on. By drawing on the right associations, you can speed up people’s adoption of your experience.
“Familiarity and comfort make people feel welcome. There are different ways of doing that — environment, music, colors. Certain restaurants have certain colors so you only spend a certain amount of time in there. In terms of designing those spaces, there are basic principles in all of those areas.
What’s most important is to be thoughtful about the details, and strategic about the associations.
If you’re using two colors that cause anxiety, use them in a space where you want to create anxiety. Don’t let these decisions be random.”
DELIVER ON THE PROMISES YOU MAKE
Many decision choices are implicit promises to your users. One architect was viewing virtual street for retail and stated:
This is a fail on visual cues. Architecturally you have lines leading into it, or lanes, and you have arrows… but then you get to the end and there’s nothing. So now I’m disappointed.
What makes interview these experts different from the average user is that they are able to articulate very clearly what their expectations are. This person noticed the lines, said what they meant to him, and then explained his reaction. These experts are outliers for their ability to use analytical language to explain their emotions about space.
In the next post, I will continue with part 2 of their recommendations on how to use details to enhance the user experience.
Author’s note: Please leave me a comment here to share your thoughts, or tweet me at @theextendedmind. And if you’d like to hire me for UX testing of your immersive creations, email contact@extendedmind.io.
