Digital marketing has reached the point in its evolution where we know what the best practices are: A seamless omnichannel strategy, an emphasis on customer experience and the use of social media to co-create the brand with the customer, to name a few. digital marketing will soon be shifting into a new gear, as virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) begin to gain critical mass.

1. DESIGNING FOR
INTERFACE WITHOUT
SCREENS

2. UX experts are used to designing forms, websites and smartphone
applications. Now they need to re-learn the trade to design
interfaces and interactions in virtual reality.

3. As a medium, there are very few existing standards, protocols,
and workflows.
It’s like participating in film before cinematography had shot names,
or like participating in the internet before “web designer” was a
position.

4. Many of the traditional UI elements simply do not work in VR, and a
significant part of the existing UX toolkit is simply inappropriate.

5. To begin with,
designing for a
flat surface - our
laptop or phone
screens -
is very different
from designing
for a spherical
world with the
user at its centre.

7. Curved design
You need to stop thinking about the canvas as a surface, and
imagine it as a sphere.

8. Put it into a VR enviroment, and it
just doesn't work, especially if it's too
wide or tall.
The edges of a flat surface will be
further away from the user's eye
focus, making them blurry and hard
to read.
Take an element as simple as a rectangle, a picture or a video player.

9. Narrowing the Field
In VR placing any meaningful control element to the periphery
of the field of vision is a bad idea.

10. Take an element as simple as a rectangle, a picture or a video player.
Put it into a VR enviroment, and it just doesn't work, especially if it's
too wide or tall. The edges of a flat surface will be further away from
the user's eye focus, making them blurry and hard to read.
It's simple biology: your vision is simply not sharp enough on the edges.

11. Using Z Zones and Depth
Objects that are too close to your eyes will get blurry.

12. Just raise your hand and start
moving it towards your face - you
simply can't maintain focus when
it's closer than a few inches.
Objects, and especially controls
should never be placed too close
to the user.
On the other hand people are much
better in telling the distance
between two objects in close
distance, than between two objects
far away. If the distance is
important from an interaction point
of view, the objects should be
placed reasonably close to the
user's eyes.

13. Motion flow
In virtual reality the camera is mapped to the player's head, with it's
focus being at the centre (unless you use eye tracking)

14. This means you should
never change the
environment against the
head movements, or
force the user turn their
head involutarily.
Both leads to motion
sickness, and being
nauseated.

15. Of course sometimes you want
to guide the user through the
user interface, towards the
direction where something is
happening. This is where subtle
tools like motion flow comes
into play.
Pressing a button can trigger
the button to extend, or
slowly start moving, gently
guiding the user to turn their
head.
We are implying a direction,
guiding their eye to the next
point of interest.

16. Moving Interface
It's the opposite of motion flow, when we don't urge the user to look in
a specific direction, but rather move the new elements directly to the
field of view.

17. Standing the the centre of a
sphere means you don't
see, and you don't know
about UI elements
changing behind your back.
Sometimes it's better to
put them right in the
front of the user.

18. Capturing attention
The long evolution of the Homo Sapiens trained us to pay
attention to lights and movement - otherwise we probably
won't be here, and predators would rule the Earth. This
evolutionary skill is perfect to capture focus in a virtual reality
environment.

19. A great example is the game demo Lost by Oculus: they use fireflies in
a dark forest to lead the eyes of the user.
We expect to see more subtle, clever plays on light and
shadow in VR applications and games.

20. Anchor objects
Virtual reality causes dizziness for a lot of people. Chances are if you
had a bad experience with VR you won't try it again - and definitely
won't try it the third time.

21. We are used to standing or sitting
still while the world is moving
around us, a good example being
driving. It's not causing nausea,
because we have a visual anchor,
the car dashboard.
Establishing such an anchor object in the virtual space is
something interface designers should consider.

22. Research suggests even a virtual nose can
help. We all see our nose all the time
anyway, right?

23. Holophonic sound
Holophonic sounds are amazing in games, but they very well might be
used for VR control interfaces.

24. Holophonic means 3D sound (the
word itself rhymes with
holography).
The idea is that with listening
through the right equipment you
can tell if the sound is coming
from above, below, or from
behind your back (and not just left
and right, as with the stereo
systems).
Imagine a video start playing outside of your view, and you will hear
_exactly_ where the sound comes from. We are not quite there yet, but
not that far either.

25. Best Practice UX
1. Virtual experiences are simply better together
2. Virtuality is more impactful when it’s seamless with reality
3. Virtuality should be comfortable

26. http://realityshift.io/blog/ui-ux-design-patterns-in-virtual-reality
http://www.uxofvr.com/
http://www.cmswire.com/digital-marketing/artificial-intelligence-virtual-reality-and-the-future-of-digital-marketing/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomaslaurinavicius/2016/12/04/ux-trends-2017/#52f680857c94
Mike Alger:
https://vimeo.com/141330081 - VR Interface Design Pre-Visualisation Methods
https://vimeo.com/116101132 - VR Interface Design Manifesto
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B19l7cJ7tVJyRkpUM0hVYmxJQ0k/view
UX Links / References

27. HOW WE CAN HELP YOU…
SYDNEY / LONDON / SAN FRANCISCO
VR UK FOR
BRANDED CONTENT

28. CUSTOM USER INTERFACE
VR CONTENT MENU
When users enter your VR world, they need a point of entry into your experience.
This is similar to a website home page. It is the main hub for all your VR content.
How can you creatively us VR to enhance this point of entry?

29. START VR CONTENT FORMATS
SUMMARY

30. IMMERSIVE VR NARRATIVE
THE EXPERIENCE
1. IMMERSION
4. PRESENCE3. AGENCY
2. EMBODIMENT
Our unique VR storytelling UX framework offers an immersive, sensory and interactive content experience for
your audience.

31. CUSTOM UI 360 VIDEO
ASSETS
UX DESIGN PUBLISHING ANALYTICS
VR APPLICATION FRAMEWORK

32. VR DELIVERY
MULTI PLATFORM
With our Startgate VR platform content can be uploaded once and then easily published to Samsung Gear VR,
Oculus Rift and HTC Vive devices

33. RHIANNON MONKS
RHIANNON@STARTVR.CO
SYDNEY / LONDON / SAN FRANCISCO
WANNA SEE A DEMO…?