Today, we looked at AR/VR and specifically within prototyping. This is something that I definitely need to be aware of as I am coming closer to beginning the design phase of this project and don't feel confident in this area.
Spatial design is a broad field that encompasses the planning and creation of physical spaces, considering not just aesthetics but also the needs and experiences of the people who will use them. Apple developer released a video on the principles of spatial design, my main takeaways include maintaining familiarity including elements like sidebars, tabs, search engines etc. Human centred Design insuring user interfaces are responsive to users needs and dimensionality which include three dimensional spaces to create a more immersive experience.
Principles of spatial design - WWDC23 - Videos - Apple Developer
Meta horizon design guidelines offer structured guidance on designing intuitive accessible and spatially aware experiences in AR & MR. It focuses on immersive design and Mixed Reality and ensuring the design meets the users needs.
Immersive experiences cover the spectrum from full immersion to seeing some virtual elements superimposed on your physical surroundings, including both fully immersive and mixed reality experiences.
Mixed reality blends the digital and physical worlds, letting users interact with digital objects in their physical environment.
Some features I would like to note down included hand tracking and head based interactions to ensure comfort and accessibility, voice interactions that account for tone, context and non verbal cues covered, to make voice command intuitive. For mixed reality integration features like passthrough, scene understanding, and spatial anchors allow virtual objects to interact naturally with real-world surfaces, enhancing immersion.
In class we completed an exercise where we created our own VR environment using Figma and an Apple VisualOS plug in. With this we were able to go onto a website that allowed us to select the background we wanted for our VR Environment. I found this really cool and something that we have never done in class before!
Then after creating the Frame on Figma we published this and could see how this would look on our laptop. We could look about this virtual environment, similar to how you would with a VR Headset.
We were then surprised with actual VR Headsets and linked this up to our laptops which then we could actually be in the Virtual Reality that we created ourselves. I had never experienced wearing a VR Headset, so this was a very weird feeling experience. I think what made me feel very uncomfortable was that I could hear everyone in my class chatting but I couldn't see them as I was in a different reality to them. It made me feel like I was being pulled away from reality almost, which could just be me being dramatic.
Overall, I am so glad we were taught and had AR/VR explained to us as this was something that I felt was holding me back. I felt like I had some good ideas at the beginning of this project however, I didn't want to pursue some of these ideas as I thought it would be impossible to create a prototype of this on Figma. After this class I realised I could include these features as this class taught me I could use AR/VR features. VR isn't something I am particularly interested in, however I didn't realise how easy it was to create a VR Reality and I did enjoy it very much. I am still not really passionate about VR but this was definitely useful to know.