Design Thinking for Immersive Experiences

Recent advancements in extended reality, Web3 and AI technologies have catalyzed a paradigm shift by delivering a new category of experiences both consumer and B2B audiences can interact with and leverage. The possibilities enabled by these technologies open the door to novel and immersive experiences that can thrill and delight users, yet may also introduce gimmicky, scary or deeply unpleasant experiences if designed poorly. This presentation will help you leverage design research thereby developing more thoughtful and impactful experiences in this emerging technology ecosystem.

At Ipsos, we place users at the heart of decision-making. The process we use has been refined over decades and is founded on the principles of industrial design, applied psychology, human-computer interaction, human factors, and ergonomics. That’s why our UX/HF research services are elevated through the integration of other Ipsos solutions, such as CX, Behavioral Science, Neuroscience and Innovation. Our passionately curious research professionals, analysts and designers have built unique multi-specialist capabilities that provide true understanding and powerful insights into the actions, opinions and motivations of citizens, consumers, patients, customers or employees.

For more insights about the leveraging the metaverse, please click here.

Speakers :

• Katelyn Faulks Hall, Research Director
• Pip Mothersill, PhD, Research Director, Ipsos
• Matt Hemeyer, Senior Vice President, UX, Ipsos

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Today’s AI-generated audio transcript is offered below. Apologies in advance for inconsistencies that have been included.

0:04

Thank you for joining us for today's Ipsos webinar about key UX inspired design principles for immersive Web3 experiences.

0:14

Today's Webinar is being presented by a team of seasoned Ipsos user experience experts and they'll introduce themselves shortly.

0:24

Throughout today's session you will remain in Listen only mode however.

0:29

Webinar you may submit questions online using the Q and A feature.

0:34

Time permitting we'll answer questions at the end of today's session. However, if time run short, then your question will be answered by e-mail.

0:44

Today's webinar is also being recorded and will be e-mailed to you.

0:50

So now without further ado, it is my pleasure to welcome today's first speaker. Matt Meyer, SVP with Ipsos is user experience practice. Matt, you have the floor.

1:05

Hello. thanks for the nice intro there, Elen.

1:07

I'm delighted to be here and I wanted to thank everybody for taking the time to listen to our conversation about design principles for emerging technology.

1:18

Before we launch into that quick introduction so you guys know who you're, you're listening to here.

1:25

As Ellen mentioned, I'm Matt Hehmeyer, I'm a Senior Vice President on the Ipsos UX team And I get to lead the team of UX research and design consultants who deliver work to our largest enterprise tech clients.

1:40

Our team loves, deeply complex, technical, subject matter, and the confluence of all of these various technologies that will enable next gen experiences are exciting and fun for us to study and design, and generally think about.

1:55

And so with that, I'm going to turn it over to Pip and Kaitlin to introduce themselves.

2:01

Thank you, Matt. I'm Caitlin Hall, previous life. I am a Director of UX here at ..., and I lead the Extended Reality Initiative with an Associates. Specifically, I focus on evaluating the consumer facing experiences, so thinking about how your front end consumer, or user may experience extended reality hardware or software.

2:28

So it's great to be here to speak with you all.

2:32

And, hey, I'm pit mother Cell, also director in the UX team here in North America. Originally from the UK. I have experience in both industry and academia, and most recently at the MIT Media Lab. And what I do is Caitlin talked about looking into the front end, I think about the backend, really unpacking all of those in messy ecosystems, where we have all of these devices that want to communicate with each other, that will contribute to this vision for this seamless metaverse. So, that's something that, that I work on, trying to understand how that can be a really seamless transition and experience.

3:15

Man, there is a lot of talk about the Metaverse right now, isn't there?

3:21

And, well, it seems like, we're hearing from clients every day, as getting questions about the metaverse, There's just so much buzz about it.

3:30

The data actually backs that up.

3:33

It doesn't just feel like that, you know, recent survey.

3:38

It turns out that over 50% of adults, across 29 different countries say they are familiar with the metaverse, and they widely expected to have a huge impact on their lives in the next decade.

3:50

The vision of the metaverse, or what people currently understand it to be, is relatively simplistic, though, it's, it's, you know, basically, beat saber or connecting with, with friends to chat in VR.

4:05

The, the real metaverse, the promise of it, is, it's so much more than that, though.

4:12

When we think about how a confluence of various networking technologies came together, as the web, and engendered a whole new generation of experiences, we're still waiting for a similar confluence with with the technologies that will eventually be the Metaverse.

4:31

I mean, the real truth of this is that the various technologies, like Extended Reality Hardware, will come together with Web three, or crypto powered, The transfers of value across different types of domains, AI ML will deeply understand your context and serve up dynamic content.

4:54

And this will all be sort of continuously inter-connected, bringing physical and digital worlds together.

5:02

And I realize that that's a lot of abstract technical jargon.

5:08

That's probably really hard to imagine what that full promise the sort of capital M, metaverse could look like.

5:17

And so I want to ask Kaitlin to walk us through a really, fully realized example of what really could mean for us on a day-to-day life, and what a fully realized metaverse experience might look like.

5:39

All right, so I'd like you all to imagine that we're 20 years into the future, Now, we can experience what a true metaverse might feel like.

5:50

So first, you need to imagine that you have extended reality contacts, in your eyes, as well as their sync to your earbuds, which have a voice assistant.

6:04

Let's imagine that in the future, you're walking around a city street, maybe you're in-between meetings, and it's a little chillier than you imagined. So you want to grab a sweater before you go into the next call.

6:20

You hop out onto the sidewalk, and you tell your virtual assistant pull up the nearest store to me, so I can grab a cardigan.

6:30

She syncs with your contacts. And suddenly the vision in front of you that's straight blurs a little bit, so you can see the different options you have available to you.

6:41

She pulls up different clothing, boutiques, different distances, and you notice that there's 1 that's 30 walks away five foot.

6:49

You select that one, and she lets you know that you can travel there by biked to save some time.

6:54

Or there's a right now, you can say taxi, and in two minutes the taxi will directly come to your location because she's already geo located where you are for you.

7:09

You do decide to take up the build a taxi, and you're quickly in a store looking at sweaters.

7:19

While you're in the store, as soon as you step through the door, you have a virtual storefront ahead of you that overlays to the store as you're looking at designed clothing.

7:30

Here, you can pick up different clothes, and it'll immediately sync with what you're seeing in front of you to let you know what the prices, what the size is, and giving you different options and deals.

7:43

You pick up a sweater. And in front of you, you have different options that pull up onto your vision. You can see your digital closet so that you can view how the sweater looks with other clothes that you already own.

7:58

You can also look at other items in the store That might go nicely with the sweater that you've chosen.

8:04

You can decide to purchase the sweater right then in there, And just by thinking it to your crypto wallet, or your digital phone, kay, then you can walk out of the store without even stopping to talk to any store folks, you can even try it on right then, without having to go into the fitting room through a virtual mirror.

8:28

You notice that there is an option to have a personal assistant, uh, style you, so that you can make sure that it looks good with any outfit you'd like.

8:40

You decide you're just going to pick up the sweater or purchase for it right back with a really quick, press a button and you walk out the store, and you're back on your way to your next meeting.

8:53

Thanks, Caitlin, It's gonna be awesome Like that is really amazing, Advanced for four, our society and the way to use technology.

9:05

The challenge is that we're nowhere close, right? The Capitol and metaverse doesn't exist.

9:12

so where are we?

9:14

Let's take a step back and think about what the reality is right now, there are immersive virtual worlds right now. Unfortunately, they're all connected or disconnected, and so anything that you buy or build in one of those worlds, is difficult to take with you to other worlds. There's no real transfer of value. And in fact, you may have to use different devices to access the different worlds.

9:41

Um, and most of those worlds are quite limited, there's no one dominant immersive virtual world that really allows for huge variety of different types of, of experiences.

9:58

Also, Web three, crypto, or, or some type of, decentralized.

10:05

Authentication technology is going to be really important for things like authentication and transfer of value, establishment of identity.

10:16

They will eventually allow for this persistence.

10:22

They're totally inefficient. They're a nightmare for regular people to access it, use there.

10:31

Um, super, super shady, too!

10:35

If you've been watching the news and all over the last couple of weeks, you probably know that even larger or seemingly stable players in this space can be built on very shaky foundations and often, sort of disappear overnight.

10:51

And so while this, the web three crypto world carries a lot of promise, it is not ready for a mass consumer base at this point.

11:04

Same kind of deal with, with the hardware.

11:06

VR headsets and smart AR glasses have really come a long way, But they still have a long way to go.

11:14

The reality is that they're they're big, they're hot, they don't pack a ton of compute power. So they aren't able to run super complex operations.

11:26

And there's a the societal acceptance element to this too. They're still just really dorky looking.

11:33

And the idea that people are going to begin wearing headsets, their current form factor out in public.

11:41

wide-scale is just, it's just not happening.

11:46

And then maybe most importantly, is that there isn't any kind of standard standards or protocols that would allow for widespread interoperability.

11:56

The technologies that eventually came together to be the internet existed seriously for decades before they all came together.

12:05

And certainly, advances in the technology were important for the the eventual deployment of the internet.

12:13

But so we're standards boards, I didn't like without the Worldwide Web consortium. Without things like the TCP slash IP protocol.

12:21

There is no way that we could have had the equal opportunity and the, the openness that allowed creators all over the world to partaken in the Internet on relatively common ground.

12:38

And there just isn't anything like that for the Metaverse, yet, certainly nothing that's that universal or that formalized.

12:46

And so, that development of standards, boards and universal protocols that will really allow for for widespread interoperability is going to be critical to the the evolution.

13:02

And so knowing all of that, we've thought about where we are today, and what design principles would be important for building meaningful and valuable experiences in the metaverse, as it sort of exists currently.

13:22

We've been lucky to have a chance to do research on this set of emerging technologies over the last several years, technologies like extended reality.

13:33

So AR, VR, AI, or machine learning powered experiences that can dynamically serve content or experiences based on a user's context.

13:47

We've done a lot of work with smart devices and sensors that can help give that signal around context.

13:55

And as we've gotten more familiar with the space, we've gotten more familiar with the variables that lay the foundation for positive or really valuable experiences.

14:08

And so, for the duration of the rest of this webinar, we're gonna go through those those principles and share some of the ideas that that we have related to creating these types of immersive or metaphorical experiences.

14:26

We have six of them to share with you, they're fairly straightforward sounding until you start to think about the complexity afforded by the space and then there's there's a lot to unpack.

14:36

The first is to simply add value.

14:40

And while that may seem like the kind of master of the obvious statement, it's going to be really important for us to help our clients and our stakeholders avoid investing in gimmicky or really unfair worthwhile experiences.

14:57

If you think back to the 20 teens, when Alexa skills were first sort of widely available, it was like a land rush. And I started, I was in consulting at that point, and certainly heard from a lot of my clients, that they just wanted to be a part of Alexa. They wanted an Alexa skill, and they didn't really have any idea why.

15:15

They just wanted to do it.

15:17

And I think we're already starting to hear from some of our stakeholders are from our clients that they're interested in the same thing related to the metaverse, guiding them towards experiences that really take advantage of the the immersive or contextually aware capabilities and avoiding things that are perceived as gimmicky or not worthwhile is going to be really important.

15:47

The next principle is going to be to scale emersion immersion.

15:52

And they say, ability to feel completely embodied in a totally different space or a part of the world where maybe you thought you'd never visit.

16:00

Or to feel like you are in the presence of friends or loved ones. It's one of the really powerful capabilities that current VR brings to bear.

16:12

And that's great for, for some experiences. But there are different levels of immersion that are applicable for different types of experiences. And so we want to think carefully about what value the experience is trying to convey, and then what level of immersion is is appropriate.

16:33

We were talking with an expert at one point who was talking about Augmented Reality, and they were saying you have to be really thoughtful with the, every single pixel that you use in, in.

16:48

In a R, because every pixel that you put in front of somebody's eyes is one pixel of the real-world that they're not going to see in the real-world is still pretty amazing. So, really being thoughtful about the level of immersion. We want to get into is is important.

17:05

We also, I think it's critical to safeguard users it yeah, of course it is.

17:11

But because of the immersive nature of a lot of these experiences, there are so many ways that you can you can put your your users at risk.

17:20

There is the risk of they're feeling that their personal space has encroached on. There's the risk of collecting data insecurely. It's very intimately incredibly sensitive data that that's going to be collected.

17:33

Or there's even physical concerns with moving people into spaces that are unsafe, or like physically injuring them during some of the, the potential experiences.

17:45

And the potential repercussions for brands are for the creators. If they don't safeguard their users, this is really high.

17:56

Another great promise for this space, and something that's that's incredibly valuable, is the ability to detect the context of users, and then serve up dynamic content for them based on their context. And so really embracing that ability to contextualize and then making that seamless for the users is super important.

18:19

The idea, of course, boundaries is tough right now, because there isn't good interconnectivity between all of the the immersive worlds.

18:26

But the idea is the same.

18:29

If if someone were to buy a pair of shoes, that they could only wearing one shopping mall, they'd never do it, right.

18:36

And so, if you're looking to, can transfer something of value to your users, if that's part of the experience, thinking about how they can move that value from one experienced to another.

18:49

Or take that with them, so that they get maximum value from whatever they've built, purchased one or experienced, is going to be really important.

18:59

And then the last thing is just be realistic.

19:02

Be aware of where we are right now with the technology, where the hardware is at, what's really possible, and what's possible in a delivery mechanism that's going to actually be enjoyable. We don't want to stretch the hardware out to where things are lagging or buggy.

19:18

We want to realize what is likely to two, make people sick or not?

19:26

We want to just really be aware of the current lay of the land and create experiences that that Rex reflects that and deliver on the promise of what's here today and not necessarily the promise of what's going to come next generation.

19:40

And so, with that intro, I'm going to hand it off to Caitlin to talk about the first three of these and let her get into a lot more detail about what these principles really mean in practice.

19:57

You add?

19:58

So, the first principle sounds so universal, it's something that comes up again and again, when any new technology is being introduced, or any new features are being introduced, we always hope that any new design, or product, or idea, adds value to the world.

20:15

This also room name, center, and one of the most fundamental components to any emerging technology, like extended reality as well.

20:25

And so for this, we recommend ensuring that this is one of the first things you think of when embarking on any design product, project or process in this space.

20:36

Want to ensure that the technology that is being developed is introducing both useful and remarkable solutions.

20:45

And what I mean by that is that it's important to deliver experiences that go beyond imagination when we are starting to see how immersive and interactive technology can provide a new lens of an experience for people.

21:04

We see that it's possible to build things that are otherwise impossible.

21:09

So now that the Internet and this tech has evolved, we can create stuff that has physics that we don't currently have in the physical, real world.

21:22

For example, on the left is an NF two you designed and created by an artist, Andrea ..., which shows a piece of furniture that couldn't exist in our world today, but one shown in a virtual world with different virtual acts, physical components built from algorithms and representing different types of fabrics and physical engines.

21:50

You can see it, It creates a very dynamic and interesting way to experience and appreciate art, applying those kind of fantastical experiences for people to enjoy.

22:05

It can be one of the very cool strengths of extended reality, including virtual reality or augmented reality.

22:14

Now, we can overlay a digital experience into someone's world that make something that's otherwise impossible.

22:23

So on the right here, you can see a meeting on the Moon, which is an example of Microsoft and frame VR collaborations, where they built out what it might feel like for people to do beyond the moon, and even jump with new physics, or toss a basketball, and even learn about it as they go.

22:48

Since this is a meeting space, you can even host a classroom, where you're teaching students about different properties of the room, and this time, instead of just learning about it, they can also try it firsthand.

23:02

Through that simulated experience, that creativity, which breeds innovation and creates that additional contextualization can really help make experiences feel more real to people, and it offers a new way to appreciate the world around us and what we learn.

23:24

However, we also recommend, of course, pushing beyond novelty.

23:30

As Matt said, any feature or products that is super, super cool, that that novelty only lasts for so long.

23:39

It's important to ground those remarkable experiences in some added value to the user and to the consumer.

23:47

So that people can see the, beyond the magic and how it can apply to help to their real life.

23:55

To help them achieve the goal that they have, or, or motivate them to continue to come back to that experience.

24:02

To explore and learn more, and, and continue to add value to their life.

24:08

So, there are some different examples here of potential features or ways that this type of extended reality is being applied now, where novelty factor is, of course, still here, but it goes beyond that, as well.

24:25

So on the left is an example of using a combined mixed reality program so that students can learn how the carbon, how a carbon, physical piece of carbon can zoom in to become a molecule.

24:41

So they can understand the molecular components that actually build that physical structure, which is a new way for them to learn.

24:49

Other ways that this could be applied is providing you in context.

24:54

Navigation, so if you're traveling in Paris, you can immediately pull up directions and see exactly, in front of your face, where do you need to go with that big arrow.

25:07

And additionally, um, if you are interested to learn something new, perhaps you can attend a virtual meetup from your home with people around the world to learn how to do sign language. or even to attend events or entertainment. That Otherwise would not be available to you.

25:27

Or even just having fun and and getting up some fitness and breaking a sweat while moving around an immersive virtual game.

25:35

Each of these kind of pushed beyond that excitement and change of altering the physical world with digital by also providing some steps for the user to apply to their lives so they can make things more efficient or, or get some exercising really quickly without going to the gym.

25:58

In addition to having some value with these types of designs, it's important, as Matt mentioned, to ensure that we embrace the multi dimensional levels that extended Reality can provide.

26:15

So that we consider, how are people going to use the digital interactions and physical, so that they can get the most out of that experience.

26:28

But that actually starts from the design. First, is the experience that you want people to have going to make sense for how they're going to use it.

26:39

And so, for this, we encourage to scale the immersion and consider how embodied or how interactive it needs to be are to really sing.

26:52

But before I go down too far into this principle, allow me to give you an introduction to what I really mean by immersion.

27:01

So with the introduction of this immersive, you can have people explore and interact with digital information in new ways.

27:13

Not only can they view something on it to the screen and scroll through their phone to see things, but also they can build it all around them and have a sense of physical space with the digital that they're looking at.

27:28

So, for example, you can suddenly be transported to a new place So that when you look around you, you're no longer in your home. But perhaps you're in a totally new area of the world learning about a landmark, perhaps.

27:44

And this time, you feel as if you're truly there, even if you've never stood up, you can also interact with digital objects.

27:53

So you can pick things up and move them around and see a three-d.

27:59

model perhaps of, of a home or a car that you might be personalizing and you can walk around it and pick it up and move it, make it larger or smaller.

28:12

Instead of only looking at a digital image, now, you can truly play with it, move it around, see the that extra nature of it.

28:21

Then, in addition, another way that this may develop is that you could even interact with digital things and digital people.

28:32

So just like now, when you're on Reddit, you can comments to people respond to threads, read, and have discussions.

28:41

Now, it's not only at graduated to that to the Zoom meeting where we can see each other's faces, but you can feel that the presence of someone sitting next to you. Because in a virtual place, with virtual people, you can feel that they're really there alongside of you.

29:02

And with the introduction of new technology, someday it may be possible to even shake their hand or give them a high five, so that it feels even more like you're right next to them, even if you're a thousands of miles apart.

29:17

So, there's lots of potential capabilities for adding these layers of immersion.

29:23

But building an experience to leverage those levels is important.

29:29

Not every experience is going to need you to be able to high five, a shopkeeper while you're shopping store, virtually. However, you might have different reasons to build in these layers.

29:43

So, for example, on the left of the screen here, we have what an augmented reality experience could look like.

29:51

Which is a lower level of immersion, can be accessed on your phone and you can have people interact with the object to see how it looks in their physical, real home.

30:02

Some experiences might be better suited for something like this, where someone can very quickly pull up something on their phone or computer, as long as they have a camera to see how that digital overlay looks like in real life.

30:18

However, the more we built up these immersive capabilities, the more different and dynamic things that someone could do.

30:26

And so, for example, in the middle, we have here an example of what it looks like to have mixed reality, where a three-d.

30:35

model of A Heumann Heart System Bouse can be easily shown and demonstrated to students who are preparing or learning about how to conduct a transplant.

30:50

In this model, everyone can see the same structure from the different perspectives that they have around the room.

30:57

In addition, somebody who might remotely be attending a meeting to learn about this, can see the same thing that the people in the physical room are seeing, because they're can attempt from anywhere they are and still see that three-d. object.

31:13

I'm going up the chain here, we go into a fuller, more immersive layer as well.

31:19

Not only can you walk around and interact with the objects more like you could in mixed reality, but, in virtual reality, you are fully feeling as if you're in a new place.

31:30

Right now, as virtual reality shows, you can kind of cover your entire vision with the digital world and feel more removed from the physical world around you.

31:41

This can offer opportunities to feel as if you're transported to a new place. Perhaps even going somewhere you've never been before to play mini golf. And meet up with people, friends or family. Or even someone new.

31:58

to walk but mini golf course with them. While you haven't even left your home, but you can still have a good round of golf or just conversation with others around you.

32:11

And in the future, perhaps, another layer that could be added is a feeling elements where someone could pick up something and feel the weight of it before they make that purchase. Or strum the guitar strengths as they're learning how to play guitar through our virtual class. Things like that.

32:29

These offer different ways to think about how we design features pending. How the person is going to be using it.

32:39

Auto ML experience may allow different dimensions of embodiment, as we've just discussed.

32:46

But not everything is going to require everything.

32:49

So some experiences might be better suited when you're on the go, if somebody is traveling.

32:56

For example, having a way to very quickly pull up some augmented directions, either on there passes or through a laptop or a tablet or phone.

33:07

Something that's easy to transport, can become very important.

33:11

You don't want to be wearing a VR headset while you're taking a flight in between countries or, or walking down the street. That could be dangerous. But you can still access digital technology and get that enhancement and assistance from wherever you are.

33:29

A mixed immersion experience might be most helpful when you are collaborating with others.

33:34

So thinking about how a design might be best suited for group work, collaboration, especially when teams are not all in the same place and they're scattered across the globe.

33:48

A mixed reality experience can allow people to still see the world around them, so they can talk to co-workers or colleagues who are in the same room as them.

33:58

But it also allows somebody who isn't an office a few thousand miles away to port themselves into that meeting space and feel as though they're all there together while they're working on a project.

34:11

This is also helpful in scenarios where someone is working with physical objects, but wants to have that digital interaction and an overlay to get assistance while they're working with potentially, highly technical.

34:29

And it's highly technical things.

34:32

Where it would be dangerous if they're fully removed from it, because it is important that they can physically play something without injuring themselves.

34:43

And a fully immersive experience may be helpful when you want someone to feel completely transported into that new world.

34:52

Perhaps.

34:52

If someone is going to plan out a trip, for example, being able to, kind of go there ahead of time and plot out the different places that are going to be important for them to, to take their friends and family, too.

35:06

This can help them make that plan and feel like they're really there before they've physically spent the money and to take the trip, or perhaps for gaming or or meeting with other people. When you are not meeting in a public place, but you're in the privacy of your own home. Attend to virtual concert, for example. Because perhaps you are sick but you still want to have the experience of being at the event.

35:36

These experiences could also be layered.

35:39

So, instead of optimizing for only one, potentially at some point, there will be an ability to layer these experiences so that they translate across these different levels. Simultaneously.

35:52

For example, today, when we access the internet, we can do so from our phone. We can switch over to our laptop or PC.

36:01

You can even use a tablet or our TV.

36:04

All of these different apps have now been more optimized so that we can switch between devices and use them in different contexts.

36:14

Eventually, it will be important that we can do this with some immersive experiences as well.

36:19

So, not only developing or creating an experience that matches only augmented reality, but perhaps having an opportunity to layer it up two different immersion levels pending the context of where the user is, or what device they might be accessing the experience with.

36:37

On the left here, you can see an example of snap AR kit for virtual shopping.

36:43

This is currently a great way for people to try on different types of clothes, like shoes, perhaps, or a hat, or makeup, or a cult even. And they can try it on anywhere they are just from using better phone.

37:00

However, another example of this type of shopping is using it for VR.

37:06

So here we have an example of what was a pop up of a VR dressing room, where someone could just hop into VR and try on different clothes that are going to be sold at Amazon. And launched during perhaps holiday event, They can try on clothes in different ways, depending on where they are and get a different experience in the virtual reality, while you can get a sense of how it would feel to where that flow.

37:36

And perhaps you do that when you're at home, rather than out and about.

37:43

As we've discussed, safety is so important as well.

37:48

And that goes for really any experience nowadays that's connected to the online world, And so it is all the same one.

37:57

We are continuing to add these extra layers, spatial, digital experiences.

38:06

So we need to ensure that each system is secure for the well-being of the people using it and also for their privacy. Since so much more data is being collected when people are having that more physical experience too.

38:21

We need to design safe, secure, and comfortable experiences.

38:26

And so, it's important that we think, anyway, we think about three ways to approach that, because now, we're combining physical with digital. We now need to also ensure that people are physically safe, when they're accessing that more digital world, or the digital world that's now connected to our business.

38:51

So, ensuring that, when someone's walking around they, with that additional layer of AR, on their face, like Matt mentioned, you don't want to block out their vision so much that they can injure themselves.

39:04

In addition, it's important that we think about, how do we protect people's mental well-being and health when they're accessing these experiences, particularly if it's a public experience. Or if it's an experience that brings people back to it again and again.

39:20

How do we ensure that they are feeling safe, and secure, and mentally, well, and supported in the experiences they have?

39:29

Then, when we're thinking about new ways that this technology integrates into our life, how do we secure that digital information that is being collected?

39:40

Gonna go into a little detail about each of these, and these next slides.

39:46

So, when it comes to physical safety, designing persistent guidelines, and reminders to promote people's physical safety, as they're using any device, in virtual reality, where you're completely blocked off from the physical world, at this point. Giving people a boundary to make sure that they know how to clear their area, so that they don't injure themselves and knock their knees, trip over things, is incredibly important.

40:12

This goes the same for mixed reality or augmented reality, as well.

40:17

You want to make sure that there are some reminders in there that people aren't maybe looking down at their phone or are so distracted by the digital information that they see, that they trip or fall into a pothole, perhaps, when they're walking down the street.

40:33

So building in systems that kind of alert users of potential hazards, so that they are missing the, that the physical world is still existing around them, when they're using these technologies, or warnings, and safety instructions for the best type of person to use a device, so that they don't get ill, or, or impede any developmental stages.

40:57

For children, for example, and if there is likelihood of getting motion sick, or nausea disorientation, vertigo from using a device, it's very important to build in ways for users to both see how comfortable they are and also protects them by allowing them very clear instructions on how to get out of an experience if it's not going well for them physically.

41:27

In addition to physical, we need to think about how that translates when you are physically being represented in a digital way as well.

41:37

For example, allowing personal boundaries.

41:41

If we're going to be suddenly in virtual chat rooms where we feel like we're truly fair with other people, it's just like the real world, but digital.

41:53

We want to make sure that, if we're in a public space, people aren't knocking into us, or touching us in ways that are uncomfortable. And that goes the same way for a digital experience, too.

42:07

When we are seeing digital information, especially when it's so close to our vision, our brain perceives it as reality.

42:19

So if somebody comes up to you and starts to get into your whole space, in virtual reality, for example, that's still going to be extremely uncomfortable.

42:30

So, building in ways for the user to control and set down, perhaps, personal bubbles.

42:36

Or, or creating boundaries or guidelines that users should follow, so that everyone feels safe in interactions with each other, is paramount, especially if we are going to have public places for people to visit, such as the virtual shopping mall.

42:54

Want to make sure that when you're having your shopping experience, you're not suddenly barraged with harassment or yelling or screaming in that space.

43:06

So, having a system that is already designed to help people, and not only feel safe, but also have moderators or a moderating type of option, to help people ensure that they feel comfortable throughout all of the experiences that they're having with others online.

43:29

And, lastly, but not least, importantly, in this section, of course, is that now, with this type of technology, more data could be collected.

43:39

And this is something that people are already sensitive about now, when they are accessing different websites, and going to different applications with the potential for this type of technology to scan our faces or environments. That type of data can be considered very private and personal for any user.

44:03

So, ensuring that people are feeling that their data is not going to be taken or used in ways that aren't nefarious, and making sure that they feel that it's going to be responsibly and securely protected if they are using some additional tracking when they are accessing a feature.

44:26

This, this is very important so that people don't feel as if their identity could be taken or or they could be located problem. Potentially a hacker or a user who has poor intentions.

44:40

Other ways to think about it is maybe even not store the data at all, and to instead temporary collect it so that people know that when they go on to experience, anything that is collected is really just going to be anonymized and discarded after they leave.

44:57

There's lots of different ways to think about this, and there's more exploring to be done for sure, but users are savvy and know about this as a potential option.

45:08

And so, while they might be additional employee, I'm more interested in some ways to have a cool new experience.

45:15

Eventually, that tradeoff is going to be wanting that more secure fueling experience as well.

45:23

Now I'm going to hand it over to pip to go over the next few slides you all.

45:31

Hi, thanks, Caitlin.

45:34

Great. So, yes. So, our next principle is to, as we said, think about how we can customize these experiences so that the user gets exactly the type of experience that they want. And, ideally, we want to be able to contextualize this automatically.

45:49

These new VR and XR devices have an incredible array of sensors, such as cameras that track our hands and our bodies. They can scan the environment around us.

45:58

They'll soon be tracking our eyeballs, are body temperature, possibly even all brainwaves, when you're designing these future experiences, This is an opportunity to take advantage of this sensor data to give those uses a really customized experience that's relevant to their immediate needs and not add pixels where we don't need them, as Matt said.

46:22

And so this is where we need to start with a basic, you know, UX research tenant with just considering the context of the user.

46:30

Much like designing responsive mobile web UX, and a UI in metaverse experiences, there are some other factors that we need to consider to make a more responsive, contextually relevant experience.

46:47

So the first one is thinking about how the physical space affects the experience. As Kaitlin described earlier, there are different levels of immersion that you can experience in the metaverse. Some of which take account of the physical space of the user, more than others.

47:02

You may have experienced with augmented Reality apps, on your phone, where virtual content is overlaid on top of the physical world around you.

47:11

This is one of the incredible benefits of augmented reality.

47:14

Being able to seamlessly blend these physical and virtual worlds, But it requires scanning of all of the surfaces around the user and finding the right, right. one to place the virtual object on top of, like a vase on top of a coffee table.

47:29

You know It then also just needs to adjust the position and the scale and even the lighting conditions. So it makes sense for that uses experienced. Otherwise it's just not going to feel like it's a blended, natural part of the experience and just feel a bit gimmicky.

47:46

This mapping is less important for the fully immersive virtual experiences. But, as Matt said, the one thing to think about is how comfortable are people gonna feel wearing that headset. You know, they might feel differently about wearing it in a private space, versus in a public space weather around strangers, or feel more or less safe to have a dynamic moving environment experience, versus just having an experience where they can sit still.

48:12

So that's something to consider as well.

48:18

From the social point of view, another thing to consider is what different social situations your user is going to be in.

48:26

For example, what sort of avatar are they going to want to use in a work situation versus a social situation? And how can that change automatically?

48:37

How does the virtual environment change when the user is in different contexts? You know, for example, if they're playing a game, and they want to interact with other people, it may have a different environment than when someone is working by themselves. For example, in the Desktop VR app, you see at the bottom, there's the ability to set up dozens of different screens around you in a virtual environment, which may work great for one person, but may not be a good experience if multiple people wants to try and use those screens.

49:10

When you do think about when you want to have these more interactive experiences, then you maybe need to set up something which is more like the real world, like in Horizon workrooms there, where you can see everyone just sitting around a conference table.

49:24

That environment affords this virtual and interaction between different people much better than than other environments. So, that's something to think about.

49:34

Then, the last thing, context to think about is how the experience can be customized for different technical capabilities. That's not dissimilar to how we consider designing for different mobile device OS is today.

49:49

Because we want these experiences to be used by as many people as possible.

49:53

one thing to think about is how your immersive experience can be accessed on different devices, For example, on a laptop as well as an augmented reality app on your phone, or even, or a virtual reality headset. Also, how can it be accessed by different brands with? You know, as Matt said, there are many different different device ecosystems. You, you want to be able to have as many people using it, not just dedicated to one particular device.

50:22

Steam VR is actually a great example of a platform that is brand agnostic. It allows users to play, and download and play games on a wide range of device types and manufacturers.

50:34

Another thing to think about when it comes to the technology and just enabling your users to have these immersive experiences as thinking about the amount of bandwidth that your user will have, these immersive experiences can be very bandwidth heavy requiring really good WI fi connection.

50:52

Which could limit the number of users that you have or also the locations in which they can access your experience.

50:59

So one thing to consider is how your experience can have a lighter version of it so that users can still experience it when they're on the go or accessing it from a lower end device.

51:11

Second life is actually a great example of this as it senses and then modifies the user's technology or network capabilities and then allows the user to continue to engage with the content but at the level of fidelity that their bandwidth or their device can handle.

51:34

But it's not enough to design for these experiences separately, all these contacts separately. As Matt said, that the ideal metaverse experience is this really automatically contextually aware experience, where a user can, haz, can move from a public to a private space, they can move from using a full VR headsets to an AR device. They can move from a high to a low bandwidth connection connectivity, and the experience will update itself automatically.

52:10

And by doing this, that's the way that the user can really feel like that immersive connected experience, this ideal metaverse vision is never disrupted.

52:25

However, as Kaitlyn was saying, we have to safeguard users.

52:31

As you may realize, in order to make all of these seamlessly, context, aware experiences work, we need to collect camera data from the user's environment. Their location data, their movement data, even their biometric data. This is farm, much more sensitive data than we currently connecting, and it's far more of it. And so the potential for misuse in the future, is a real issue.

52:57

So as Kaitlin said, we just need to be considerate about the context and the content when when we're collecting the data, only collect data that is important in that particular moment.

53:12

And no uses, again, as they, the savvy, they know that they need to hand over data, But they just, there's just a tradeoff.

53:20

And overall, they just want clear communication about what data is being collected and how it is used, so that they can feel a little bit more in control.

53:30

And, you know, as Kaitlin said, as well, you know, one option is to not collected at all.

53:36

And Apple devices are a great example of this where they can store the data locally on the device or use edge computing or advanced machine learning techniques, such as federated learning to analyze it without compromising a user's personal identity.

53:56

So this next principle is about creating porous boundaries, and that's because everything, even digital things and interactions, more valuable. If you can take them many places with you. Mattson Caitlin's analogies about, you know, not having to just wear one pair of shoes in one single shopping mall is is great. That's what we have at the minutes.

54:19

But that's not the the ideal.

54:23

No, we have so many different device ecosystems to contend with at the minute as this field emerges. We have phones, laptops, tablets, AR devices, extended reality devices, VR devices. We have, all of these devices are made by different brands.

54:42

So, Microsoft, Magic leap Mehta five, there will be an Apple one coming out at some points. There are so many of these different individual worlds that we go to roadblocks horizon, Minecraft to central end.

54:56

And we're collecting an increasing amount of digital stuff, such as bitcoin, and furniture, and avatars, and clothing that we're going to want to take with us across these different experiences.

55:13

Um, so we're going to want to be able to keep the user feeling as immersed as possible.

55:21

And we want to do that by seamlessly transferring between these ecosystems. So for devices, it means thinking about, you know, the different types of devices and immersive experiences that your whole range of users might experience, or the different devices that one user might have in themselves. And being able to translate that experience to be across those different devices, so that you know on the go, you can experience it on your phone back at home. You can experience a more richer version of that on a VR headset.

55:57

Then also, platforms as well, we need to think about how we can enable users to have experiences in one brand on a different platform, and vice versa. Again, they could be people who of friends, who have different devices, who access different platforms, who have different preferences, for which types of platforms they want to use.

56:16

We still want them to be able to connect and play together. So what are the ways that we can do that?

56:23

Then lastly, you know, being able to even just translate transfer or digital identity across these different experiences just as something as simple as being able to have the same avatar that you can use across these different platforms retaining user preferences, your NF tea collection. Your cryptocurrency wallet, this needs to feel like a very seamless transition across these different platforms. Otherwise, you're going to really limit the user base very quickly.

57:03

But as Matt mentioned, we're definitely not quite here yet.

57:07

We still have several very walled garden ecosystems. And so we advise that you just need to be ready to prepare for a messy ecosystem. And then really just think about, where are your users today? Standardization, as Matt said, is really difficult to enforce at the minute. So rather than fight that, the key is to actually just understand what your users prefer, devices and platforms all and design for those.

57:32

We can also think about, if you want to plan for wider accessibility, take the time to actually develop different instantiation of your experience across these different platforms, make lighter version, so that people with lower end devices can also experienced them as well.

57:52

And lastly, think about how you can utilize the third party aggregator platforms so that you don't have to do a lot of that work yourself. And your user base can be, can access that through those third party aggregators.

58:09

As we said, you know, think about where your users are today.

58:11

And that's something that you can actually just partner with your market insights team to think about sizing and prioritizing these market entry points and selecting the good entry for you so that you can get your, your uses, uh, using your experience or your products today.

58:33

And then lastly, we need to be realistic.

58:38

As Matt said, this vision for the metaverse is super exciting. But as I said, we're just not quite there yet. Until we get there, just make sure that your vision is in line with the current capabilities.

58:50

There are a lot of limitations in today's hardware and software.

58:53

Firstly, the hardware is expensive and it's getting more expensive, has limited battery life. The headsets are uncomfortable and can cause motion sickness, which limits the amount of long-term use that they want to do.

59:07

The experiences are also need a lot of bandwidth. I didn't know whether anyone tried to login to the Metaverse Fashion Week, hosted on to Central and earlier this year. But, you know, it requires lots heavy duty graphics cards to actually make it work, which meant that a lot of people just couldn't actually access it, even on a laptop. So that's something that is a limiting factor as well.

59:29

And in the backend, as well, there's also issues about getting people to be able to move the transfer between these different walled garden experiences, you know, onboarding logging, and processes really complex as the is. And they even harder to work when you're trying to do them in virtual reality, augmented reality. And then similarly to trying to think about, getting people to, to create these new experiences. The software. to create the content is just very complex. It is not an easy thing. That's like taking a picture on your phone and uploading it to a platform. It requires a lot of complex back end software and rendering capabilities to, to create this stuff. So, these are some issues that, that limits the amount of content that, and accessibility to these experiences that we have today.

1:00:30

But, you know, it's not all doom and gloom.

1:00:32

and what we can do is think about focusing on perfecting the simple stuff today. So that we are ready to take advantage of these amazing, new paradigm shifting technologies as they become more mature in the future.

1:00:50

So, today it's about really making today's low fidelity experience. Great. So, as I said, it's not just about virtual reality. Really think about how you can support these immersive experiences to be accessed via a laptop via phone, via a tablet to enable the widest experience. Why does access to the experience you want to create?

1:01:13

Once you've managed to get people using it, lag is a real turn. Off. People will leave this experience if it's glitchy and so really focus on just minimizing lag to ensure the experience succinct and that the users can really feel as immersed as possible.

1:01:30

And then you know, just make your onboarding and navigation as simple as intuitive as possible. We're going to have people hopping through these different walled gardens. And so just make it super easy for people just to start up that experience.

1:01:46

Then, as we think about tomorrow, once we have this solid foundation, that's how you can build those layers of immersion and interactivity on top of that.

1:01:55

Once you've started with the, with the simple experience, think about how you can make it augmented reality. Think about how you could make it a full virtual reality experience. And then, most importantly, think about how you can develop these experiences and assets to be portable across other platforms. You don't have to be the technology developer yourself. How can you piggyback on these these other platforms that are going to be refined over the next few years?

1:02:22

But then, you know, it's not just about designing for the future, it's also about, you know, thinking about the laggards of your users as well. How can you make sure that you have backwards compatibility, because not everyone is going to be using the most advanced headset.

1:02:35

And so, we really just need to think about all of the different contexts, all of the different devices, all of the different platforms that users are going to want in order to give them access to your experience.

1:02:49

And that's how we can think about building this really beautiful vision for this seamlessly connected Metaverse that everyone can be a part of.

1:03:07

And so, here's just a quick summary slide, which, which goes and pulls some details from all of these different principles. And that's the end of our presentation, And we're now open for questions, if anyone has any.

1:03:29

Since we've spent so much time going through our presentation, I think will actually hold the questions for e-mail. So everyone who did submit questions for e-mail, we will follow up with those in an e-mail form. Thank you very much for the attendance. I hope this was useful and interesting. It's been a real pleasure for us to have the chance to share our thoughts about designing for next generation experiences. And we welcome any sorts of direct follow-up or additional questions that you may have for us post webinar. So, thanks, everybody.