Mantra - Design for Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality for the path to next-gen health & happiness

At-A-Glance

Regular mindfulness practice has been demonstrated to be beneficial for mental health, but mindfulness can be challenging to adopt, with environmental and personal distractors often cited as challenges. Virtual reality (VR) can address these challenges by providing an immersive environment for practicing mindfulness and helping the user orient their attention to the present moment within a custom virtual setting.

Tools Used

360 Sketching
iPad Procreate
CoSpaces
Unity
Oculus Quest 2

Team

Anirudh
Ramanathan
Chufan Huang

Timeline

Jun - Aug, 2021

My Role

Storyboarding
Usability Testing
Interaction Design for VR
Prototyping

01
Discovery
Design Process
Concept

Our goal was to create a fully-fledged VR meditation app, that provides the user with an experience that truly meets their needs.

Research

We want the users to have a therapeutic experience engaging with  “landscape” experiences within the reality of the VR Mantra. Certain existing products like rage rooms help users momentarily decompress, BUT  meditation often takes a back seat. So designing something within the constraints, of what can be done in VR was vital. These ISSUES relate to the amount of time a user can spend safely in VR. Design choices also must be mindful of issues such as vertigo, sickness, and headaches.

Research Question

How might VR be able to provide the user with the tools that help her manage to breathe, distract thoughts/feelings, and keep focus?

Solution

We created multiple storyboards and sketches allowing us to further empathize with users and center on a specific idea.

Mantra VR design focused on an experience that would be multifaceted, allow for interactivity, and revolve around calming environments.

02
Ideation
Moodboard

We utilized the story of the word Samatha, which is the Tibetan word meaning Calm (Tib: Zhi gnas). The practice of Samatha Meditation develops the ability to focus the mind in single-pointed equipoise or perfect concentration.

This is practiced as a pre-requisite for mindfulness or insight meditations. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, this practice is described as a nine-stage progression beautifully depicted in this thangka showing a monk chasing and finally capturing an elephant.

VR Environment

We strategized our VR experience setup prioritizing scene narration, target user, interaction model to sound cues, elements used and the type of navigation from within the headset.

Strategy
Narrative of Environment

A calming environment in a natural setting that helps people relax and detach themselves from the environment they are currently in. Users will see an instructor and listen to a voiceover/music to help guide them through meditation practices. As part of this experience, users may be asked to perform easy tasks to help engage the mind but with a focus on relaxation.

Who is the user

The target audience will be people who currently experience stress and anxiety in their personal and professional life. This experience will be oriented to individuals aiming to manage that stress and anxiety.

Sounds
  • Sounds of a forest (streams, trees, animals, etc…)

  • Voice-over from an instructor announcing directions for the user

  • Calming music

  • Soft/positive congratulations music/message as the through the experience

Home Base

To pause and exit the experience, users can double click the oculus button.

Interaction Goal
  • Users listen to instructions and get seated on the ground

  • Users follow through on breathing lessons and practices

  • Users engage with simple activities

Elements
  • Users will be seated or dropped into a natural, forest-like

Interaction Model

Grounded

Map based

Free me

Navigation

Head movement

Walking

Teleport

VR Concept Design

We created multiple storyboards and sketches allowing us to further empathize with users and center in on a specific idea. We focused on an experience that would be multifaceted, allow for interactivity, and revolve around calming environments.

Sketching

Then, I wanted to quickly sketch out the MVP experience in 3D, so I decide to sketch in 2D using 360 degree panorama grid, every line contributes to 10 degree of viewing angle.

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Storyboarding
I then storyboarded the whole experience, scene by scene,  as shown below. The player will first start the experience in a park, and with the help of some instructions the player will begin navigating towards the podium and when the player actually stands on the podium, a sign will appear before them allowing them to practice.
03
Low-Fi Prototpye
Physical Prototype
After honing in on the kinds of scenery, interactive elements, and overall journey of the experience. We created complex, 3D physical prototypes made out of modelling clay, legos, and paper.We wanted to rapdily prototype the whole experience from the storyboard and get it tested with a couple of users early in the process.
04
Mid-Fi Prototype
Physical Prototype

Based on the feedback and insights gathered from the lo-fi prototype usability testing, a digital environment was created using Co-Spaces. The user can navigate the space on a digital screen like laptop and also can be experienced through a VR headset. Oculus Quest 2 VR headset was used for this project and testing.

Key Findings
Unexpected Interactions

“I really wish to have the voice-over for indicating more direction and instruction.."

“It would be so great if there were the ability to select more scenes as the intro goes on. ”

"The leaves and flowers actually look real. So does the sand. Such a contrast to Nature Trek."

Whats Not Working?

"The music is not continuous and should be more in sync with the environment."

“What does the learning session indicate ? ” - Learning aspect could be clearer in the learn area.

VR Environment Experience

“So relaxing. So soothing. Just watching the waves and the sun setting is so peaceful.”

The surroundings are well made and the voice, for me, is really soothing.

Before the usability test, participant had an anxiety level of 7 and after the test it was about 5 so it did have a positive effect.

The pace of the meditation is not too fast.

“This is gorgeous ! it looks so real it is totally immersive!"

"Extremely beautiful environment with lots of little details that ramp up the realism."

05
Hi-Fi Prototype
Digital Prototype

Receiving feedback from the mid-fi prototype testing, I decided to turn the Co-Spaces in Unity and make it more hi-fidelity prototype and future development the final result to the solo projects.

Navigation

Addition of exit signs at each interactions and nodes to facilitate easy exit

Guide

Inclusion of user guides for visitors to navigate the VR environment

Environment

Visual and usability improvements in assets used in the VR environment

Sound

Natural and artificial sounds offer users an immersive experience that invokes all senses

Video Walkthrough

Receiving feedback from the mid-fi prototype testing, I decided to turn the Co-Spaces in Unity and make it more hi-fidelity prototype and future development the final result to the solo projects.

06
Reflection

Following all of this research, I started to self-learn how to create more elements and leverage the Co-space design for Unity. I now understood how to use Reflect to import content into Unity to start building  custom projects.

Content Table