VR HOME SPACE DESIGN
Team Alterlife: Camille(Chorong) Park, Kanika Rao, Katlin Groothuis, Connor Schrank
TOOL USED
TEAM
InDesign, Photoshop, Mine craft, Figma, pen and paper
Camille(Chorong) Park, Kanika Rao, Katlin Groothuis, Connor Schrank, Dr. Austin Toombs (Advisor)
GOAL
Creating a VR experience for empty-nesters and their children where they can interact and reconnect within a shared family space.
ROLE
I sketched more than 50 ideas for the team since my idea was selected for the VR home space project. I conducted researches regarding how emerging tech is being used in storytelling to better understand different spaces we can work in.
Body-storming
We created a prototype in Minecraft to feel out how our design would operate in 3D space. We chose Minecraft because of its first-person perspective, creative freedom, yet limited aesthetic. We still had questions about what kind of interactions would take place inside the home, and what it might feel like to be in the house. In order to prototype the experience, three team members roleplayed as a family in our VR space.
Takeaways
● Conversation was typical catch-up talk: “How are your classes, What have you been up to?”
● Hanging up photos was a bit tedious:
○ We broke the rules and used the Minecraft hovering, where in reality people might have to reach very high
○ Discussion about where to place it interrupted flow of conversation
● Realization that having all the memories on the wall could be overwhelming emotionally
● Transitions from catching up to photos on the wall felt unnatural
○ But we did come to the conclusion that we didn’t want to give too many activities or prompts because conversation would flow naturally 24
Detailed project slides here.
We came up with more than 150 sketches for this project. Detailed project slides contains:
Background Research
Secondary Research
Sketches
Initial Round: Research Sketches
Second Round: Experience Sketches
Third Round: Environment Sketches
Final Sketches 1
Final Sketches 2
Body Storming
Reflection
Appendix
WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED
We learned that VR space can be used to help us to have rich experience through the connection we make in the real world. As a UX designer, we should keep learning about what can technology do for us to live meaningful life.