Onboarding Users to Virtual Reality 

Project Description

Now is both an exciting and crucial time for designers to get involved in virtual reality and designing for immersive experiences. When my studio started taking an interest in VR a few years ago, few experiences were designed with the user in mind. Several years in and this is often still the case across various types of VR applications. 

To dig into how people respond to this medium, we started demoing VR titles to people who had never experienced VR before. By onboarding a variety of people to VR, we’ve gained a multitude of insights on their behaviors, confusion, pain points, and excitement across a wide range of genres. 

Our qualitative research looked into both how first-time users responded to VR as a whole, and then examined the onboarding process of popular VR titles that were widely available at the time of research.

We’ve used our research into first-time VR users as well as their feedback as the basis for multiple presentations and a final white paper of our findings. 

Our insights help us consult clients who are launching their own VR initiatives and interested in improving both their user onboarding and overall user experience.