researching emerging technologies and interactions within virtual reality.

Project Overview
This exploratory project was focused on how to implement Interaction Design and User Experience in Virtual Reality. We were interested in exploring the possibilities for multiplayer experiences where people not only sharing their virtual, but physical space as well.

Collaboration with others became core element of the project. During the exploration phase we built several interactive demos and prototypes focusing around the idea of collaboration. Project was completed in collaboration with Georgia Siapno.

This project was presented at Oculus NextGen event.
WHy multiplayer experience?
During our research phase it became evident that Virtual Reality is often a single player experience. If there are.multiple people in the same space and only one gets to experience what VR has to offer, the rest are just watching someone playing inside the headset.
TOOLS USED
The project was build and developed in Unity with the use of Blender, Sketch, Photoshop and other design tools.

UNFOLD was built and designed as a Virtual reality experience where two player gets to interact with each other in the virtual space while sharing the same physical space.

researching physicality and vr interactions.
Early on in the project I spend a significant amount of time thinking about the logic and what would be the most efficient and scalable way to build the project. Since this was a fully exploratory design project, it allowed me to not be restricted to conventional design approaches and tackle different problems at different stages of the design process.

I explored thoughtful plans for every part of the project starting with level streaming and loading, actors and events, gemaplay and modularity.
Prototyping early ideas and experiences.
Early on in the project I spend a significant amount of time thinking about the logic and what would be the most efficient and scalable way to build the project. Since this was a fully exploratory design project, it allowed me to not be restricted to conventional design approaches and tackle different problems at different stages of the design process.

I explored thoughtful plans for every part of the project starting with level streaming and loading, actors and events, gemaplay and modularity.
how does the experience and interaction work?
The entirety of the project was built using Unreal Engine 4 and the built-in Blueprint System. Visual scripting had it's own challenges and difficulties, but allowed me to create fully working prototypes faster than writing native C++ code.
testing every mechanic, interaction, event, and experience.
Since this project was a fairly complex interactive experience, every little change and idea needed to be carefully tested several times. Every change made to the experience was played both in the engine and editor and packaged to iPad.

Although I was constantly building and testing the project on my own, I have worked and showed the experience to others to collect feedback and understand their experience with the project.
BUIlding tools and ways to debug on the fly.
It became a useful practice early on in the project to build some functions and tools that would allow me to test the game and debug the experience while playing. This proven to be extremely useful since I was able to test different scenarios and reset parts of the game if needed to be without needing to restart or recompile the app.

I built a simple developer platform that allowed me to modify and change aspects of the actors in-game so that I can see where the project breaks and fails. (Without these tools, I would had to restart the project every time I wanted to make a change)
what went wrong during the development of the project?
One of the best but most challenging part of the project was constant problem solving. Every little change and addition to the project created problems and complexity that was often unpredictable.

I had to develop ways in which I could build little by little and make sure everything works well together.
Research
The first stage of the project was to understand and research current interactive projects and experiences that poses ideas and questions about similar topics.

By having prior knowledge with developing similar experiences I was able to dig deeper into more advanced development practices and further expand my understanding in building complex interactive projects.
IDEATION
After the initial research, I spend the largest portion of the project with building a large number of prototypes, mechanics, ideas, and micro-interactions.

Most of these ideas were quick prototypes that allowed me to evaluate the experience and build on top of the feedbacks and play testing.
Findings
A number of initial ideas were validated or completely disproved during early stages of testing. All final designs, interactions, and details were a results of extensive building and constant testing.

During the development of the project several unanticipated problems surfaced that required constant debugging and problem solving.