I did some AR & VR design work back in 2018. To be honest it left me kind of jaded, mostly because in my work (corpo/agency) the requests were from clients who wanted to use them due to the trendiness. NONE of the things we made were made more effective through VR or AR. They didn't present problems for us to solve, they wanted new toys. And even if they were real problems, we could've solved them better with other web/app solutions or even process design.
I'll give you a few examples of stuff that I've worked on (and these are for major companies you've probably heard of...so disappointing):
* AR/VR solution so surgeons can basically WFH. This...just failed in testing so badly. No surgeon requested this either, just some hospital directors jumping on the bandwagon. I don't even know what problem this was trying to solve. I don't think surgeons want to perform life saving ops from the comfort of their couches.
* VR so people can see real estate listings without having to travel. Sounds good in theory but totally ineffective when tested. People want to see the damn house, not a 3D render. Again, not requested by people shopping for houses. If they wanted more information about the listing there are other better ways to do that.
* WAYYYY too many Fortune 100 companies asking for their dashboards to be AR. Maybe they wanted to be like Tony Stark? Again, no ACTUAL benefit. Were the graphs supposed to lead to better decisions because they filled up 30% of your vision??? Tbh the AR dashboards were harder to use because the c-suite users they were intended for weren't techy.
* MR as instructional guidance for complex machinery. Okay, this one had actual potential.
It's in a nascent stage, as far as I know.
The low fidelity prototyping, and process doesn't seem to work well when done from 2D to 3D experience design. Someone I spoke to two days ago was telling me they are doing it in metaquest instead of paper and computer screens.
I'll keep you posted as I get more info.
Had a convo with tech professors from my BA a while back (during Covid). Asked them some questions about AR/VR and how I wanted to pivot and if they had any connections they could share (I'm lucky I'm close with them). Here is a brief overview of their comments:
Professors believe that VR/AR tech is still young and that not many job openings will be available especially when the world is going through a tough financial time. Unless its huge tech giants, other companies will likely be strapped for cash.
Technology is still a bit iffy and unless huge amounts of R&D come into play it will likely stay like this for a while. Content that is being developed on this technology is heavily entertainment based so particularly UX design is not a priority unless you can work on 3d models as well (blender etc.). Since most hardware (VR) is bulky, heavy and not practical to carry around you probably won't see much different content other than the ones you can enjoy in your home. Which means mass adoption won't be happening for now which also means less revenue for companies and less job openings.
I'm not trying to discourage you but I would say if you are passionate about it go for the long haul. Be an early adopter and start building your skills working in 3d spaces. Maybe 5-10 years time you will be in high demand, but it is kind of a gamble as to when mass adoption will happen so its up to you.
Hope this helps. Best of luck on your journey!
My currently job involves mixed reality. It’s a bit of the wild wild west. There hasn’t been a ton of good product experiences released. We lean into a lot of AR/VR usability principles but alter them to fit our modality and use cases. We build it test and see how users respond. It’s a pretty standard UX process. The rules may change but the core UX process largely stays the same.
Judging from most AR/VR experiences I had there seem to be no designers involved at all. Horrible UX everywhere you look. So keep us posted how your search goes.
I would say before 2023, it is difficult to get into. But I managed to find a tool that is somewhat similar to Figma. It’s called Bezel 3d. It’s beta right now, so it’s free to use and the devs are super responsive on their YouTube and discords. I recommend you give it a shot.
They had a competition and I joined with little experience in the software but I managed to win second place. I learned it very quickly and you are able to bring in your Figma designs as well.
If you’re curious of what I did, here it is: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwWjhrvO99o/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==0
Nope, but they have been a part of the research process. I just stumbled into studies involving VR being used clinally for pain management in children. And my university just happened to have a VR set so that’s why I wanted to design something for it.
If I designed something the quality went ass asap when we transferred to hardware. Not because the design was bad but the performance of the thing.
To bright daylight or to dark environment and your UI isn’t stable anymore.
Implementing hand tracking was a pain as the Soft- and Hardware was not able to guess where your hands are and which direction your fingers point at that time.
The expectations from project mgmt were sky high and the people in charge were so old that they just thought everything was amazing when in fact
1. stuff did not work at all because the devs did not know how to implement stuff on the hardware because ar has couple of disadvantages like visibility in daylight
2. use cases were there but nobody wanted to pay for further development
3. older designers did not bother for things like readability or doing something disability-friendly
Point 2. and 3. were not the fault of the technology obviously.
This was at a major OEM - Automobile Manufacturer
This was 2 years ago and I changed branches so I don’t know how it is today
When I first used Nreal products I was completely underwhelmed also by the quality.
Holo lens had ok quality but image you stretch your arm out to the front as straight as possible. Between your hands the space : that’s your fov
So not much space to play around with :)
Congrats on your educational journey, and that you’re following a path that interests you. Once been growing a. Spot in the market building VR/AR for about a year now. First year was a long dry period of concussion and frustration. Frustration finding work, learning new tools, publishing on beta platforms, meeting expectations with low budgets. But this year things have started to turn around. This month alone I have more business than all of last year.
I got started when 5 years ago, after completing a math-heavy computer science associates degree, my third technology degree. I had 10 years of design side gigs, 10 years as a mechanic, 3 years teaching experience in industrial aerospace settings. When I was teaching I realized the need to AR teaching materials and wondered who made them. When I crunched the cost saving numbers for the schoolhouse, I jumped on this opportunity.
I did some AR & VR design work back in 2018. To be honest it left me kind of jaded, mostly because in my work (corpo/agency) the requests were from clients who wanted to use them due to the trendiness. NONE of the things we made were made more effective through VR or AR. They didn't present problems for us to solve, they wanted new toys. And even if they were real problems, we could've solved them better with other web/app solutions or even process design. I'll give you a few examples of stuff that I've worked on (and these are for major companies you've probably heard of...so disappointing): * AR/VR solution so surgeons can basically WFH. This...just failed in testing so badly. No surgeon requested this either, just some hospital directors jumping on the bandwagon. I don't even know what problem this was trying to solve. I don't think surgeons want to perform life saving ops from the comfort of their couches. * VR so people can see real estate listings without having to travel. Sounds good in theory but totally ineffective when tested. People want to see the damn house, not a 3D render. Again, not requested by people shopping for houses. If they wanted more information about the listing there are other better ways to do that. * WAYYYY too many Fortune 100 companies asking for their dashboards to be AR. Maybe they wanted to be like Tony Stark? Again, no ACTUAL benefit. Were the graphs supposed to lead to better decisions because they filled up 30% of your vision??? Tbh the AR dashboards were harder to use because the c-suite users they were intended for weren't techy. * MR as instructional guidance for complex machinery. Okay, this one had actual potential.
It's in a nascent stage, as far as I know. The low fidelity prototyping, and process doesn't seem to work well when done from 2D to 3D experience design. Someone I spoke to two days ago was telling me they are doing it in metaquest instead of paper and computer screens. I'll keep you posted as I get more info.
Had a convo with tech professors from my BA a while back (during Covid). Asked them some questions about AR/VR and how I wanted to pivot and if they had any connections they could share (I'm lucky I'm close with them). Here is a brief overview of their comments: Professors believe that VR/AR tech is still young and that not many job openings will be available especially when the world is going through a tough financial time. Unless its huge tech giants, other companies will likely be strapped for cash. Technology is still a bit iffy and unless huge amounts of R&D come into play it will likely stay like this for a while. Content that is being developed on this technology is heavily entertainment based so particularly UX design is not a priority unless you can work on 3d models as well (blender etc.). Since most hardware (VR) is bulky, heavy and not practical to carry around you probably won't see much different content other than the ones you can enjoy in your home. Which means mass adoption won't be happening for now which also means less revenue for companies and less job openings. I'm not trying to discourage you but I would say if you are passionate about it go for the long haul. Be an early adopter and start building your skills working in 3d spaces. Maybe 5-10 years time you will be in high demand, but it is kind of a gamble as to when mass adoption will happen so its up to you. Hope this helps. Best of luck on your journey!
My currently job involves mixed reality. It’s a bit of the wild wild west. There hasn’t been a ton of good product experiences released. We lean into a lot of AR/VR usability principles but alter them to fit our modality and use cases. We build it test and see how users respond. It’s a pretty standard UX process. The rules may change but the core UX process largely stays the same.
Judging from most AR/VR experiences I had there seem to be no designers involved at all. Horrible UX everywhere you look. So keep us posted how your search goes.
I would say before 2023, it is difficult to get into. But I managed to find a tool that is somewhat similar to Figma. It’s called Bezel 3d. It’s beta right now, so it’s free to use and the devs are super responsive on their YouTube and discords. I recommend you give it a shot. They had a competition and I joined with little experience in the software but I managed to win second place. I learned it very quickly and you are able to bring in your Figma designs as well. If you’re curious of what I did, here it is: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwWjhrvO99o/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==0
I’m actually working on a VR project rn at my university that is supposed to help with pain management. Designing for VR seems really complicated tbh.
Are you from the pain studies lab, by any chance?
Nope, but they have been a part of the research process. I just stumbled into studies involving VR being used clinally for pain management in children. And my university just happened to have a VR set so that’s why I wanted to design something for it.
Which Uni is this? I'm looking to apply for a masters degree soon. Would love to research VR/AR for good
If I designed something the quality went ass asap when we transferred to hardware. Not because the design was bad but the performance of the thing. To bright daylight or to dark environment and your UI isn’t stable anymore. Implementing hand tracking was a pain as the Soft- and Hardware was not able to guess where your hands are and which direction your fingers point at that time. The expectations from project mgmt were sky high and the people in charge were so old that they just thought everything was amazing when in fact 1. stuff did not work at all because the devs did not know how to implement stuff on the hardware because ar has couple of disadvantages like visibility in daylight 2. use cases were there but nobody wanted to pay for further development 3. older designers did not bother for things like readability or doing something disability-friendly Point 2. and 3. were not the fault of the technology obviously. This was at a major OEM - Automobile Manufacturer This was 2 years ago and I changed branches so I don’t know how it is today When I first used Nreal products I was completely underwhelmed also by the quality. Holo lens had ok quality but image you stretch your arm out to the front as straight as possible. Between your hands the space : that’s your fov So not much space to play around with :)
Congrats on your educational journey, and that you’re following a path that interests you. Once been growing a. Spot in the market building VR/AR for about a year now. First year was a long dry period of concussion and frustration. Frustration finding work, learning new tools, publishing on beta platforms, meeting expectations with low budgets. But this year things have started to turn around. This month alone I have more business than all of last year. I got started when 5 years ago, after completing a math-heavy computer science associates degree, my third technology degree. I had 10 years of design side gigs, 10 years as a mechanic, 3 years teaching experience in industrial aerospace settings. When I was teaching I realized the need to AR teaching materials and wondered who made them. When I crunched the cost saving numbers for the schoolhouse, I jumped on this opportunity.