The Design Process
This product was developed during the 2023 annual X.R. Brain Jam, which took place over a single weekend. Teams were given that time to design, prototype, and present a functional extended reality product.
Tools of trade
Meet the team!
Brian Chung, David Obajemu, Elizabeth Walsh, Violeta Ayala, Leon Wang, and Andrew O'Rourke
Defining Goals
Bridging the Gap: The Potential of X.R. Technologies
Coming off of the impact of the 2020 global pandemic, we wanted our product to address the increasing isolation and lack of meaningful connections in our communities.
Technology can connect people but often it isolates. We aim to demonstrate how X.R. can bridge this gap.
We had a diverse set of people in our group in ethnicity, gender, and even age. While we all have had prior experience with virtual reality we also wanted to make our experience accessible to anyone.
We set out the themes that we wanted our experience to have:
Embodiment Building worlds that directly reflect a person.
Mindfulness. Making it a space to reflect on oneself and others…slowly in response to the fast-paced nature of social media and current technologies.
Different tracks. Having the ability to enter into different digital worlds.
Painter, building an experience. Having the freedom to completely personalize each world.
‘Woven Worlds’ envision a future where technology serves as a tool to augment our abilities and build economic empowerment, enabling us to tell our own stories, build on our own history, and express our own emotions in a profound and personal manner.
Woven Worlds enables users to build virtual worlds using text or voice inputs via AI. They can customize their worlds with 3D objects, music, and effects. The preferred world generator is Skybox, integrated with Unity for a shared reality experience.
User Research
Having been limited to only a weekend for development, production, and showcasing our user research process was heavily expedited. User research was done amongst the team.
We researched the ways current technologies have made each of us feel isolated.
Asked about what stories from our lives we would most want to tell.
We then search for what ways would we want our world to be personalized.
approach
Findings
We identified a significant gap between technology's promise of fostering connections and its actual capability to achieve this. The initial expectation was for technology to facilitate genuine connections through instantaneous interactions. However, the reality often resulted in superficial forms of engagement and shallow narratives that did not truly reflect our real selves but rather encouraged a form of posturing.
Contrarily, the stories we shared were deeply personal and authentically ours. These narratives were not shaped by the desire to impress but were driven by a genuine willingness to connect. This authenticity led to a more satisfying experience of self-expression, far surpassing the superficial interactions often found on social media or in shared virtual environments.
Visuals: The visuals should be striking, dynamic, and easily customizable to resonate with individual users. The aim is to create an immersive and personally relevant visual experience that enhances the storytelling aspect.
Sound: Sound is just as crucial as the visual elements. The soundscape must complement the theme of the setting and the story, creating an immersive audio experience. Additionally, there should be an option for users to orient themselves within the sound environment, allowing for a more personalized and engaging auditory experience.
Momento: There had to be an indicting object unique to each user they only they could understand.
By focusing on these aspects, we moved forward with bridge the gap between the promised potential of technology and its actual impact on creating meaningful connections and authentic storytelling experiences.
Development
While personal, these worlds are not isolated. By choosing connecting commonalities – shared emotions, 3D artifacts, environmental descriptors – users can pull on objects (portal keys) and threads (tags) to move into related worlds. This web of vessels allows users to share experiences created from a variety of perspectives while also providing a sense of our interconnectedness.
To organize our progress the following spreadsheet was created to have a clear vision of which worlds have which objects that connect to which other world:
Periodically, we paused to share our progress with the rest of the team and gather their feedback.
During our team check-ins, we made a collective decision to limit our voiceovers to poems. This choice was influenced by the nature of poetry, which can be likened to a 'zip file' for more expansive thoughts. Poems allow us to encapsulate a ton of emotion and personalization in a concise, impactful form.
Additionally, from these discussions, we recognized the need for a guide to assist those interested in uploading their own worlds. We produced an instructional video.
A standout feature of Woven Worlds is the inclusion of interactive objects. These elements are not just for visual engagement; they offer an interactive experience. Users have the ability to pick up, closely examine these objects, and even transport themselves into the worlds they represent. This interaction adds a tangible dimension to the virtual realm.
Initially, we toyed with the idea of creating our connecting objects in Blender. However, after some deliberation, we chose to utilize the Unity asset library for these elements instead.
Mic Check?
An unexpectedly enjoyable aspect of this process was the sound design for our personal worlds. I had previously used the program Reaper for basic sound design and mixing in other projects. However, the experience of crafting the soundscape for my world was particularly rewarding. By utilizing resources from Pixel Bay and incorporating the effects available in Reaper, we succeeded in creating immersive soundscapes.
As lead developers, Brian Chung and I focused on essentially creating a Unity program that would allow for the connection of several worlds. We utilized Unitys Virtual Reality SDK.
The connecting branch within these worlds would be a 3-D Object randomly placed in each world that would act as a trigger to transport our user into the objects associated world.
For this prototype we would be limited to worlds created by members from our group:
Deliverables
Virtual Reality: Our platform of choice would be a headset - allowing for greater immersion. We developed in Unity and built to the HTC Vive XR Headset.
Soundscapes: Using ‘REAPER’ we would design soundscapes for each individual world.
Blender and Unity asset store for connecting objects
The Product:
Install instructions
Load the download onto your VR headset:
DownloadXRBJ2023-Woven-Worlds-v1.apk file
Enable Developer Mode for Oculus Quest
Install a sideloading app
Upload APK file using the sideloading app.
Enjoy!
Future Implications
What I would improve:
After observing a diverse range of users test our product, ive identified critical enhancements that could make our product more intuitive and engaging:Simplified Drag-and-Drop Interface: A user-friendly interface that enables easy manipulation of AI-generated environments, catering to all levels of tech proficiency.
Voice Recording Feature: Users will be able to record their voices directly within the app.
Rich Library of Pre-Made Objects: We'll offer a wide array of pre-designed objects for users to integrate into their worlds, encouraging creativity. ( Users will still have the ability to import their own 3D objects)
Since the Brain Jam took place within a space of a weekend if allocated more time, we would spend considerably more time, User testing participants especially those above the age of 40 to learn how we could make this product even more accessible.“Imagine one of our team member’s aunt Victoria in Tiumpampa. A 70-year-old Quechua woman, she understands the world in her unique way. Now, picture her putting on a headset to take control of her own narrative. With her words, her emotions, she shapes her representation, creating her own world that emanates from her experiences and feelings.”
Learnings:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to make technology easier for people who aren't very familiar with it. This can be especially helpful for older people or those who haven't used technology much. Still, we must use AI cautiously, considering ethical concerns such as privacy, security, and fairness.
Importance of Inclusivity in Technology: The project underscored the importance of making technology accessible and inclusive, particularly for older adults or those less familiar with tech. This has broadened our perspective on designing for accessibility.
Balancing Creativity and Practicality: Creating Woven Worlds within a constrained timeframe taught us to balance creative ambition with practical limitations.
Future Technology Trends: Working on an XR project provided insights into the future of technology and its potential impact on storytelling, communication, and community building.
Award and Recognition
I'm thrilled to share that following our presentation to the Games for Change panel, our product was honored with the Award for Innovation. This recognition is a testament to our team's hard work and creativity. Additionally, we were been invited to showcase our product to industry leaders during the Games for Change Festival taking place during that same week.
