Quelles sont les meilleures façons de concevoir des interactions en réalité virtuelle pour faciliter l’apprentissage et la maîtrise ?

At HOLOGATE, we embrace the "easy to learn, hard to master" design principle, inspired by Nolan Bushnell's vision. This approach ensures our VR experiences, including games and training modules, are accessible yet offer a challenging journey towards mastery. We prioritize intuitive playability and dynamic difficulty adjustment to match user skill levels. Feedback is key in our design process, utilizing sound and visual cues for immediate understanding of actions, aiding players without breaking immersion. This fosters a state of flow, where challenges perfectly align with user abilities, encouraging deep engagement and a sense of oneness with the experience.

We can take a few examples from traditional games, the art of immersion and progression is not new in gaming. The player must always know that it’s possible to master the environment by either practise, change of tactics or a different set of tools. The more closely real life situations are reproduced, the more immersive the game will be. That reproduction of real life will allow for use of the environment and if the experience is good enough, anyone can live a bit of their dreams, not only a select few. It would be possible to visit concerts , museums, racetracks and sit inside the Apollo capsule as it orbits the moon. The immersion factor of driving a race car or sailing a catamaran is self evident, watch Gran Tourismo on Netflix

Consider using game design methodologies. Read The Theory of Fun by Raph Koster, one of the most influential game designers of the last several decades.

For effective VR learning, balance challenge with tailored feedback, key for leveraging neuroplasticity. Start with tasks that match user skills, progressively increasing difficulty to stimulate synaptic growth. Immediate, clear feedback, through visual and auditory cues, aids in recognizing successes and areas for improvement, enhancing neural connections. Incorporate adaptive difficulty adjustments and provide guidance for stuck moments. This strategy keeps users motivated and engaged, facilitating initial ease of learning while promoting mastery through cognitive engagement and skill refinement, fostering strong, lasting neural pathways.

Integrating haptics in your game can greatly increase immersion of your VR game. An easy method for haptics is to trigger vibration whenever there is a collision detected by the players virtual hands.

To design hand tracking gestures in Unity, you can use Unity's XR Hands package, which let's you easily integrate hand tracking into your game.

Incorporating natural/intuitive gestures in VR design facilitates easy learning and challenges mastery by tapping into the user's pre-existing skills. Gestures that mirror real-life actions like mimicking the movement of playing a musical instrument-allow users to apply their knowledge within the VR setting, reducing cognitive strain. Implement hand tracking and controllers to simulate interactions with objects, use head and eye tracking for camera control and navigation, and integrate voice commands for communication. This approach minimizes frustration, making the learning process more engaging and intuitive, while mastery requires refining these gestures for more nuanced VR tasks, leveraging neuroplasticity for skill enhancement.

The simplest way to encourage easy learning and hard mastery is to map the interaction to an obvious set of actions that the user already knows. For example, in VR when hand controllers are available, moving in space, touching and grabbing are obvious, so mapping interactions to buttons, sliders and levers feels natural (as well as being adjacent to well-known methods with traditional pointing devices and touch screens). Unfortunately, eye tracking is not commonly found in most equipment at time of writing (Feb 2024), but hand tracking is now nearly ubiquitous, as is voice input when appropriate. But don't forget that for accessibility, it is often necessary to have more than one way to accomplish the task at hand!

Active and adaptive learning in VR should engage users by allowing them to interact, explore, and adjust strategies based on feedback. For example, language learning in VR could involve practicing in different scenarios, enhancing skill retention. Incorporate branching scenarios for varied learning paths, use gamification to motivate, and provide self-assessment tools for reflective learning. This method encourages users to actively participate and adapt, improving their understanding and skills through exploration and self-evaluation, making learning intuitive and mastery a challenging, rewarding process.

Consider the emotional impact of VR environments on users, especially those with sensitivities or mental health concerns. Tailoring VR experiences to be empathetic and supportive can significantly enhance therapeutic outcomes. For instance, incorporating nature-inspired settings can reduce anxiety, while personalized avatars allow users to explore identity safely. Stories of users overcoming fears or developing new skills in VR highlight its transformative potential. Always prioritize user feedback to evolve VR designs, ensuring they remain inclusive, engaging, and beneficial for a diverse audience, fostering a sense of community and belonging.

Something many VR platforms fail to do well is build in product guidance on the basics. 2D SaaS platforms have done this really well for a long time and it's led to the growth in PLG as a core GTM strategy for driving user adoption. Tool tips, visual product guides, button labels. For things as basic as how to move and grab objects. We need to remember most people are still probably putting a headset on for the first time and we need to build products that meet users where they are in that journey. Additionally, resource centers in a 2D format can be really helpful still. Seems small, but goes a long way for users to get the most out of any experience you build for them.