ROLE: END-TO-END EXPERIENCE DESIGNER

As one team developed the PC setup portion, I focused on developing the concept and interaction design of the in-device experience, which introduced input and navigation using controllers and speech. I extended the pacing and instructional approach that I designed previously with HoloLens.

Tenets:

1. People can move through the experience at their own pace.

2. Learning is interactive, purposeful and easy.

3. Teach only what’s essential to accomplish core OS tasks.

4. Leave people excited, not exhausted.

EXPERIENCE FLOW

Creating visualizations of the entire flow helps the team understand the customer journey.

“SENSE OF PLACE” IN VIRTUAL REALITY

While the theory of ‘Sense of Place’ in the physical world is well understood, its correlation in virtual worlds is unclear. I focused my design research on understanding how environment affects people, especially in learning situations. This lead to thinking about how the concept of ‘Sense of Place’ might apply to completely digital environments; are emotional and geographic connections possible when we can so easily change environments in VR? How does the intangible nature of digital objects affect this experience?

“A sense of place has to do with the interaction of three elements—location, landscape, and personal involvement; each by itself usually is insufficient to create a sense of place."

—Salvesen, 2002

Below, a storyboard sketch of a journey to a virtual world ‘home’.

The idea of connection to a ‘virtual place’ guided my approach to the final design.

Sketch to prototype

Quickly moving from hand sketch to prototype to evaluate spatial layouts and environments.

INSPIRATION BOARD

SOLUTION

CONNECTING TIME AND SPACE IN THE CLIFF HOUSE

The initial ‘Home’ in Windows Mixed Reality Immersive is the ‘Cliff House’, a virtual multi-room structure overlooking a fantastical seascape. This is where you organize your apps and content, open and view movies and other flat apps; it’s similar to the desktop on screen-based computers. This location would serve as the setting for the complete in-device experience.

My solution was to begin the experience back in a time when only the foundation of the house existed. Then, in the final stage, you transport to the present - inside the completed Cliff House.

From storyboard to working prototype to final spatial specifications:

SP