Ramblings on VR Experiences
Brain droppings from my recollection of my first VR experience on Oculus Go.
Having used VR now I understand why Apple is pushing AR. In before the “but you haven’t used [high-end VR headset]“! I know. But this doesn’t change the fact that the quality of content offered varies greatly. And that over half of it is full of bad transitions and nauseating rotations.
Most experiences are bad. The majority of content I found on the Oculus Go app store was nauseating. 360 Videos that kept cutting from one scene to another, rotating of the avatars position etc. The International Space Station VR video was particularly nauseating.
Trending AR VR Articles:
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Cut the shit with the splash screens already! Staring at a company logo screen at the start of an app isn’t great in any experience, but particularly annoying in VR. I’m talking about things like this:
“That looks alright” you might think. Here’s a little taste of how the above feels like in VR:
And here’s an even more accurate simulation:
What’re you trying to do? Brainwash me into loving your logo?
Instead, put your logo in the 3D world like so:
But also on that note, for the love of God:
Stop throwing stuff at my face! I get it, it’s 3D. Here, I’ll let out a forced ‘whoa’ so you can feel like you created an engaging experience:
Whoaaa…
There, you made me ‘whoa!’ Now please stop doing things like this:
This is already okay, because there’s something between you and the objects:
That makes things more acceptable, and especially in the context of a space shooter it’s even more acceptable. Context being important here. Also, if you do this more than once during onboarding I’m gonna get annoyed pretty fast:
I’m not saying never do this. If you want to illustrate what it feels like to get hit in the head by an asteroid then go ahead. Flying through a text during onboarding is a huge attention-getter. But I’ve seen these used completely out of context for the “cool effect”. A forced-feeling “random” flock of birds flying at me while I’m flying through the sky. Don’t. Yes, it’d be nice to have them there, but can they just fly over me, or beside me like in real life?
2–20 metres is the sweet spot. When I was in outer space I though “Cool that I can move around, but I might as well watch this on TV.”
Being far away from any object loses the VR charm. Maybe one day when we have dual 8K goggles with 8K video delivered by Elon Musk, this won’t matter so much. But in the meantime, I’d rather see this image on a flat retina screen.
On the other end of the spectrum is the “blurry objects flying at my face” experience I mentioned above.
The sweet spot, where VR really shines, is in that 2–20 meter space.
Now for the love of God, don’t go jamming everything into this 2–20 meter space! Easy does it.
Similar to the logo brainwashing UI, full screen loaders are annoying. There’s literally nothing else for you to focus on but the loader. Zen perhaps, but certainly not a great experience. And it’s not even Zen, because you’re feeling anxious not knowing what’s on the other side. Will I be propelled mid-way into an orbital rotation that’ll make me vomit? Will there be a stark noise that’ll startle me? Who knows? Nothing to do but to sit and wait:
“How do we make these loaders better?” You don’t. You can create better loading states for sure, but a fancier loading swirl that is synced to the movement of my head isn’t making anything better. Instead:
Leave the user on the current screen until the next one loads. Don’t lose that all-important sense of something to hold onto. Something to keep the mind on. It can be minimalist. But as a human being I need a space. I dream in a space, my thoughts are often visualised in space. We don’t exist in a vacuum.
Stop hanging me up in the air. Unless the whole point of the app is for me to be sky diving, there’s no reason for me to be levitating in the air. And even in that sky diving example, you better transition me into that gently. In real life when I decide to go sky diving, I don’t flick my fingers, and BAM! falling down from the heavens I go.
Funny enough I don’t mind being in intergalactic outer space even. At that point I’m so high up that height stops being a concept I can spatially relate to, and therefore the fear of heights goes away.
But best of all, put me on the ground. And if I’m using a 3 degrees-of-freedom device that’s usually used on a couch, then put me in a seat.
Your app’s review becomes even more important in VR than on mobile. Apps that were 4–5 stars would sometimes leave me nauseated. Those below 4 stars? Forget it.
Take it easy, and let me preview. Even the “best VR videos” section on the Oculus store were lacklustre. I kept feeling unease about the scene changes. YouTube style player controllers are a must-have with VR videos. I want to be able to scrub through videos for example. I want to know: Will I be faced with the open jaws of a great white shark at any point? Nope, no thanks. Will I be spinning upside-down at any point? Nope, no thanks.
Don’t go backwards. I never liked sitting down facing the other way in a bus.
Don’t go forwards, then sideways, then, up, while slowly rotating me. Yes I want to go into outer space. No I didn’t sign up to NASA astronaut physical exams. If you want to move me, then gently move me in one direction, and that direction should ideally be straight ahead.
Again, if it wasn’t clear already. Pick one direction and stick to it. Nausea != great experience. On the topic of movement:
We need better segues. The Best VR Videos category in the Oculus store was especially bad, but I’m willing to bet that this is pretty standard across the board in VR.
You know how you can easily watch a video that cuts from one scene to the next on your TV? Well, your whole world doesn’t disappear when you watch TV. I’m yet to find a really great segue experience (up and coming interaction designers make a name for yourselves!), but the best so far is:
Don’t change more than 2–3 scenes per minute, and fade slowly. Easy does it. Let’s go back to the 5 second fades of the slow-paced movies of yesteryear. Or if that doesn’t work, fade in one second but stop cutting between scenes.
All 360 video editors out there, please do a 20-minute meditation before you start editing for VR. Slow down. Take it easy. You can have your explosions and Adrenaline-thrills, but ease into them, and then ease out of them. Remember, you’re not actually trying to kill the viewer. Even before we got the crazy-fast editing of the video above, it took our brains time to develop that kind of “resistance”.
Bad experiences I’ve had with other apps carry over. It doesn’t matter if your app doesn’t make me nauseous. I don’t know that until after I’ve tried, and so many other apps have given me nasty surprises.
Let me preview the experience. Yes, it may spoil some of the fun, but I’d prefer to know what I’m getting myself into. This can be as simple as a video control bar that you can hover over and see thumbnails at different points.
If you don’t let me preview what’s happening next, then you better earn my trust fast, and never break that trust. Otherwise The Great Unknown feeling starts creeping in, and if your app gives me even the slightest bad vibe, I’ll be on alert.
The Great Unknown being feeling in VR where you sense that one scene is ending and you have no idea what’s coming next. Will it startle me or make me nauseous? It’s not a fun feeling.
Having used VR now I understand why Apple is pushing AR. In before the “but you haven’t used [high-end VR headset]“! I know. But this doesn’t change the fact that the that the hardware is awkward and cumbersome, and that most people will need fresh air after use in order to calm their nausea.
I felt jet-lagged after ~3 hours of use in a 24h period.
