Semester 2 W8 | Tutorial Scene Planning

There was a sudden realisation that I have not been considering before the Usability Test has been conducted, which is there was no consideration of having a tutorial at all. After the usability test as mentioned from previous blogpost, users ahve no idea what to do as VR is not a common device used such as a smartphone or if I may, gaming consoles that has a joycon and the standard 2 or 4 buttons. VR is a fairly new and slowly developing console that not everyone has been experienced with so it is absolutely necessary for a tutorial scene regardless if my experience is not exactly a game but an experience.

I started to draft out what I think should be included as important info for users and categorised them to 6 sections. As hand tracking is not a popular known control for oculus quest, many do not know this and had absolutely no idea that they can control with hands instead of controllers as per what witnessed during the usability test, so it is important to add a tutorial panel to highlight it. In this case, the first panel is to allow them to know that hand tracking is enabled and they will need to move their hands around, that is the first and utmost step.

Disclaimer! In the sketch below, there are 6 sections but the arrangement is not in order and I will explain it in order~

Next, the panel after hand tracking is to allow users to be aware of the guardian, which is the boundary that is created specifically so that users will not walk over them and knock over anything around them. I will alert them to Beware of Guardian, explaining it within the panel as written below. After this panel the 3rd Panel is to allow users to know that they can walk around the area, I used the term "mobility sensitive" to suggest mobility is granted within the VR experience. The remaining panels are to introduce action tutorials, such as the Hand Hovering Gesture > Long Gaze Gesture and lastly the Point Click Gesture and explained as per the image below.

In terms of the flow of the tutorial scene, users will be met with one panel first at the beginning of the scene. As they finish the task needed on each panel the next panel will pop up in an environment where the panels are surrounding the user. For example, for the Hand tracking and Mobility Sensitive panel, when users successfully walk around and move their hands, the next panel will pop up. The long gaze trigger will bring users to another room and bring them back , this will allow the users to know that the long gaze is a teleporting action. Similarly to the point click and hand hovering gesture, once users completes the task, the tutorial proceeds until the start button comes up when all tasks are done. That is when the experience starts.

The below photo is a prototype of the environment. I used the same panel and inserted the graphics into the scene to visuallise the overall look of the tutorial scene. In this scene I planned for it to be in a Lab with cyberpunk elements, something like a data room. Before everything else happens, this can give the users an insight on what they will be expecting, more like a hint to the cyber related storyline. I also inserted a ripple animation into this scene and I really like the fluidity of the scene, with more added animation it will look very aesthetically pleasing. The planning for the arrangement of the panels are also very nice, it is simple enough that users will know what to do next when the panels pop up.

In conclusion, this is the planning for the tutorial scene and it is looking very promising!