SkillsVR Design System Foundation
Defining VR design standards to improve in-headset UI and team processes
Overview
In the emerging industry of mixed reality, usability standards are constantly evolving as research and innovations push the boundaries of what's possible. With tight production schedules, SkillsVR aimed to establish a UX team and design system to improve the consistency and usability of their VR training experiences. As the first designer hired, my goal was to lay the foundation for this system and the strategy to build it over time.
Duration: March 2023 - Ongoing
Role: UX Designer, UI Designer, Unity Prototyping & Testing
Location: Remote (US and New Zealand)
Setting the Stage
I began by building cross-functional relationships and promoting UX methodologies through presentations, roadmaps, and feedback loops. This fostered a shared understanding of UX principles and established a collaborative environment.
Brand Personality
Through my collaboration, I realized the absence of a guiding brand vision. I defined SkillsVR as the Magician Archetype, leading the VR industry in training innovation. I refined the color palette to align with this vision and ensured accessibility, validating these decisions with the marketing team for consistency.
VR Best Practices
VR design posed a particularly unique challenges with the units for size of the interface. 2D design tools measure in pixels, game engines use metric, and vision ergonomics utilize degrees of vision. I consolidated fragmented best practices from various sources to create a sizing conversion:
1 degree = 20 pixels = 20mm size @ 1m distance (20dmm)
Through prototyping in Unity and validation testing, I was able to consolidate recommendations from Meta, Microsoft, and Google into:
Minimum text and button sizes.
A layout grid for UI for designing within the user's field of view prior to headset testing.
Standard distances/scales for interactions.
Setup for Unity's UI canvas to maintain accessibility at different distances from user.
Visual Design
I applied the foundational visual elements to existing interfaces while iterating on a component hierarchy. The development team and I collaborated to implement the final designs into Unity prefabs, ensuring error-free integration into reusable components.
Takeaways
The challenges in designing interfaces for VR further reinforced the value of fundamental UX principles. Translating existing standards from mobile and desktop, and seeing what doesn't work for VR gave me a deeper understanding of all three. It was a great example of how flexible UX principles are across product types, and how design exercises in drastically different areas can raise all tides.
As for business impact, this project significantly improved in-headset aesthetics and usability, establishing a strong foundation for future designs. Cross-functional understanding and collaboration were also greatly enhanced, lending valuable to the journey of improving the UX maturity of the organization.
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