Immersive Lobby - Player app
Complete redesign of an immersive environment for Virtual Reality Training
My role
Design manager and UX designer
Team
1 user researcher, 2 product designers, 1 product manager, 1 CG manager, 4 engineers
Context
This VR app contains all training modules and it lives on the VR headsets. Users go through this experience to access their training
Key takeaways from this case study
Hands on Leader
Alignment
Process
User and Stakeholder Research
This tool's target audience is primarily blue-collar workers aiming for career advancement and higher earnings. They show little interest in VR and generally prefer alternative training methods. Our research revealed that their performance data did not align well with benchmarks set by traditional training. We identified three key pain points underlying this discrepancy.
Key pain points for our personas
Lack of Trust
No Control
Unenjoyable
Design Strategy
Because of the above pain points, users weren’t interacting naturally in VR as expected. They were preoccupied with navigating an interface they found unenjoyable and untrustworthy, which distracted them from the training and led to unreliable performance data.
Our redesign aimed to foster natural user behavior, allowing them to focus solely on the training experience. Here’s how we addressed the three key pain points to accomplish this.
Key pain points for our personas
Establish Trust
Give users Control
Generate Delight
I broke those down to two areas: the virtual environment; which needed to feel comfortable and warm, and the UI; which needed to be intuitive and familiar
Virtual Environment
The main goal here was to establish control and delight. This environment is the first thing they see when they put the headset on, and it has to be non-threatening, familiar, and warm. We needed to establish a sense of comfort and awe so users look forward to spending time in the headsets as opposed to dreading it.
The environment needed to...
1. Be a warm inviting home
2. Have three sections: Train (that held their assigned training), Explore (where they experience VR experiences and get more comfortable with it), and Perform (Where they can see the immediate value they are getting from this training).
3. Be easy to navigate between sections
3. Be customizable by our customers, and scalable as we add new features / Sections
The design team prototyped a simple model of the house, and worked with engineering to try three different modes of navigation (see images above). After user testing, the clear winner was chosen and we moved to create a mockup of the space to show to stakeholders and the leadership team for approval
Communicating the vision to the leadership team
To get the resources we needed to build this virtual home, the design team modeled and decorated a mockup of how it might look, to better communicate our vision to the leadership team. After the approval, these mockups also served engineers as they built production functionality, and the CG team as they built the final house model.
UI wireframes, and simplification
The main goal for the UI was to establish control. So users felt like they are controlling the system, not the other way round. This was achieved with three key guidelines:
1. Dark mode for acclimationscreens (reduces distraction by the environmnet), Light mode for main UI
2. One level of nesting, to simplify navigation
3. Information on request, to reduce UI elements viewers are seeing at any time
4. One button for all interactions
Putting it all together
After an arduous three months of ideation, iteration, testing and building, I managed to lead the design and CG teams and work closely with PMs and engineering leads to reach the final result of the player home environment. It was a huge effort that everyone was proud of launching.
Results
Customer support calls decreased by more than 40% - Learners knew how to navigate the interface without help
Average NPS scores for the player app increased from 5 to 8.5 - Indicates that users are finally enjoying VR, and see value in the training
Training data aligned with the benchmarks set for similar training in 2D - Indicates that the learners were behaving more naturally in VR
More than 60% increase in monthly active users - Due to the explore and perform sections, and better IXD
Learnings and Improvements
Overall, the results show that this project was a big success. Customers and users loved it, and internal teams felt like this took Strivr's product quality to a level it hadn't reached before. But there's always room for improvement, and given more time and resources, here are a few things we could've improved
Outsourcing
UI Transitions
Detail
My key contributions
As a design leader, my role was to guide the team and ensure that my proposals were implemented. This involved aligning stakeholders, validating designs with users, and creating space for CG artists, engineers and designers to prioritize the project to meet the deadline. It required strong communication and interpersonal skills, along with a clear vision and a solid implementation plan.
Forgiveness and visibility
Team building