The first VR system, the Sensorama, was developed in the 1950s. It was a large booth-like experience. A little more than ten years after its release, in 1968, the first VR Head Mounted Display (HMD) came onto the scene as a companion to The Sword of Damocles, the first VR video game. It had very primitive computer graphics and basic wireframe room layouts, but those early designs are the foundation of modern VR video games.
Today, VR video games are larger and as believable as real-life experiences. A newly released VR game, Half-Life: Alyx, which is a first-person shooter game developed by Valve, is currently the highest-rated VR video game on the market. While VR was originally made to entertain, as time has progressed, its uses have vastly increased.
“Virtual reality technology is used to create immersive experiences that can help educate and entertain consumers,” said Bridget Poetker, a senior content marketing specialist at G2 Learning Hub. “Outside of its popular gaming use case, virtual reality is applied in a variety of industries, such as medicine, architecture, military, and others.”
The use of wayfinding in VR video games, specifically like Half-Life: Alyx, is prominent. The point of the game is to end up somewhere, and you cannot complete this without being guided through the ropes of the game. In a Thesis written by Brett Nisbet titled Immersive Wayfinding Cues for 3D Video Games, Nisbet states: “New wayfinding hypotheses have been formulated from theories from various disciplines, including: perceptual and environmental psychology, fine art, design, urban design, and architecture.”
According to Nisbet’s theories, it is critical that developers have a wide understanding of a variety of disciplines in order to successfully create an experience that is intuitive to the user and gets the consumer to the end goal.
Another important aspect of VR video game design is the user interface/user experience (UI/UX) design, specifically menus applying to entering and exiting the game, and the overall game control functions. In the UI of Half-Life: Alyx, while watching a player in the game, the user interface actually takes a back seat. It is seamlessly integrated into the function of the game, instead of being an afterthought that was tacked on after the game was developed. Menus only pop up at certain cues from the user’s controls.
According to research done by VR Lens Lab, the field of vision is the most important part of a VR experience, which is the part a user sees while wearing a VR headset. If this is obstructed, with something like a menu covering part of the field of view, it can drastically impact the overall experience of the viewer.
When designing VR UI/UX solutions for business, it is critical to keep the field of view open, and to integrate your UI/UX solutions into the core of the design versus tacking it on at the end of the design process.
Useful Links:
https://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality/history.html
https://uxplanet.org/what-video-games-have-in-store-for-ux-designers-e51a15accc99
https://vr-lens-lab.com/field-of-view-for-virtual-reality-headsets/
