Virtual Reality for the path to next-gen health & happiness
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.
360 Sketching
iPad Procreate
CoSpaces
Unity
Oculus Quest 2
Anirudh
Ramanathan
Chufan Huang
Jun - Aug, 2021
Storyboarding
Usability Testing
Interaction Design for VR
Prototyping
Our goal was to create a fully-fledged VR meditation app, that provides the user with an experience that truly meets their needs.
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.
How might VR be able to provide the user with the tools that help her manage to breathe, distract thoughts/feelings, and keep focus?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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
To pause and exit the experience, users can double click the oculus button.
Users listen to instructions and get seated on the ground
Users follow through on breathing lessons and practices
Users engage with simple activities
Users will be seated or dropped into a natural, forest-like
Grounded
Map based
Free me
Head movement
Walking
Teleport
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.
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.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros
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.
“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."
"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.
“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."
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.
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.
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.