Problem statement: Due to schools and colleges not being able to operate physically, they have been forced to switch online and both students and teachers are finding it hard to communicate and interact effectively using currently available methods.
Duration: 2 months (2021) Role: Solo UX designer
Project Overview
This was a self initiated academic project focussed on utilizing upcoming technological trends and learn about various usecases of the same. This ended up being my entry to the field of virtual reality which is now a full time obsession of mine.
Secondary research
Since VR was a technology completely new to me, my secondary research was focussed on
Learning more in depth about AR and VR
Finding out the limitations of the respective mediums
Learning about the software used to create virtual environments and interactions (Unity 3D and Spark AR)
Feasibility of project
Primary research (Teachers)
Sample size: 60
Demographics: Teachers from various age groups, colleges, schools and subjects
Methodology: During the discovery phase I conducted surveys using google forms and zoom calls for further follow up questions. Fly on the wall method to observe online classes.
Objectives:
To find out the problems teachers face in online classes
To learn if teachers would be comfortable to try out a new form of technology if they haven’t experienced it before.
To figure out the kind of features they would expect and want for a class to be able to function properly in said environment.
Insights
95% of them are conducting online classes while the rest are using pre recorded video sessions or LMS platforms and only assigning work.
More than 80% of teachers teach less than 4 hours a day.
Most teachers also feel that their classes aren’t as effective.
58% of them say there’s lack of feedback in classes making it difficult to teach and 92% say that students keep getting distracted.
Although only 30% have used a VR headset before 97% are open to use it for teaching if makes classes more effective.
Since it is an unfamiliar technology they want to have some level of control over the interactions available to students.
Primary research (Students)
Sample size: 60
Demographics: Students from various age groups, colleges, schools, subjects, and economic backgrounds
Methodology: During the discovery phase I conducted surveys using google forms and zoom calls for further follow up questions. Fly on the wall method to observe online classes.
Objectives:
To find out the problems students face in online classes
To learn students behaviours during online classes
To figure out the kind of features they would expect and want for a class to be able to function properly in said environment
Insights
Students have an average of 3-4 hours of class in a day
They feel like online classes are barely 50% as effective as actual classes
75% of students suffered from internet issues during classes
92% of them admitted to getting easily distracted during class and start doing things like casual browsing, texting, using social media.
92% of them also think that in a virtual environment they’d be more focused and interested.
Brainstorming session
Conducted with 5 students and 2 teachers from various fields. They were given two prompts to see what they thought about normal college classes and what they thought of online classes. (Yellow: Offline classes, Green: Online classes)
Design brief
To design a cost effective virtual reality classroom to facilitate better classroom interaction and more effective learning
Why VR?
VR allows the user to feel as though they are actually a part of the virtual world. Using features like spatial audio makes the immersion feel natural.
When you’re immersed in a virtual environment it’s really hard to get distracted and if the headset is removed it can be detected.
VR enables facilitators to make learning fun to an extent that is not possible over video meeting platforms or even in person.
The hardware can be extremely cheap (Google cardboard) or rented since there are a lot of start up providing such services.
Google cardboard
Google cardboard or google VR is a way to turn an Android device into a VR headset
It is extremely cheap as it can be supported on any android device and the external hardware can go as low as Rs. 300 (5$), allowing it to be used by people of any economic background
It splits a phone screen into two and is viewed via lenses to replicate the effect of VR
Since there's no trackers or sensors besides head movement it is a 3 Degree of Freedom (DoF) experience
Unless an external remote is linked, it only allows interactions in the form of a reticle that can be used in multiple ways
User persona
Based on the interviews and data collected, I created personas of my 2 types of primary users to have better understanding of my user base.
User story
Before VR
After VR
Core user needs
As in a normal classroom, students and teachers have different needs that need to be accomodated. Students love to have their freedom while teachers want to have control over the class. The idea was to try and come up with essential user needs that would help facilitate better online learning without hampering the experience for both types of users
Students
Peer interaction and natural environment
Interactive ways of teaching
One on one interactions
Less distractions
Being with friends
Taking notes
Teachers
Natural interactions with students
Control over student inter communication
Discussion sessions
Interaction and feedback during sessions
Better teaching methods and tools
Students paying more attention in class
Mind map
The objective of the mind mapping was to come up various features that would help meet the user needs outlined earlier.
Affinity mapping
Since there was a lot of data that was collected in the discovery phase, I created an affinity map to compile all the data into a single diagram
Task prioritization
Once all the features were decided and divided amongst the users, I created a task prioritization chart to figure out which would be the interactions that would have to be made easiest to access since there is a lot of limitation on the google cardboard. Here the orange post its denote faculty actions, yellow for students and green for common interactions.
User task flows
Teachers
Points to be noted
Teachers can set up classes, add environments, presentations and 3D objects to be shown during class
They can admit students, control interactions, start and end classes
They have access to a 2D mode which can be used for the above mentioned actions. The VR mode is purely for interactions and conducting the lecture
Students
Points to be noted
Students start from the corridor where they can interact with people from various classes before starting lectures
Once they enter their class they can select the seat they want to be at
They have various actions available to transcribe notes, have discussions etc when allowed by the teacher
The 2D mode has no additional features and is for cases of fatigue etc
Sketching and ideation
There were two parts to the UI elements, the space and the 2D elements in the virtual environment, and the 2D view that the teachers could access. The basic idea for the space was to create an experience that allowed socialising before classes started so students joined in before classes started and interacted with others in the hallway before heading into their classes.
Trials explorations
The first exploration was made simply to put my users in a VR space for the first time to get feedback since they'd never had an experience with it before.
FAQs and common misconceptions
When showcasing the possibility of a classroom in VR these were some of the common misconceptions and questions teachers and students alike had:
How long can you use VR before your eyes burn out? A: Studies show that after 30 minutes of continuous usage you start to lose spatial awareness of the physical world so it is recommended to take a 5-10 minute break every 30 minutes. But since the actual projection of the headset is far, your eyes don’t get damaged.
Will I need expensive and fast internet for this to work? A: Internet speed depends on the complexity of the program running and an experience like this would take less data than even a video call since the only data being transmitted is head movement and voice.
Will I have nausea and headache? A: Nausea and headache are very common using VR especially for first timers but mainly caused due to unnatural motion and excessive frame drops. However in a constant seated environment this would not affect the user much.
User testing
I made two different types of classrooms for the multiplayer testing. One with a slightly anime aesthetic and the other with a more earthy tone to it
A/B testing
Students and teachers were sent the mobile application to test the environments, basic interactions like moving around and talking to each other.
The conclusion was that both the style of classrooms pretty much sucked but the participants found the concept very fun and interesting.
Environment 3
The entire point of the VR application was to be able to have an online class in a natural setting. So I decided to create a replica of a classroom that all the students had previously used in my college with a combination of iPad scans and blender to give them the most realistic setting possible for a classroom experience. This does come with the drawback of scalability since for deployment a good scan of a classroom must be done with a LiDAR based device.
Final prototype video
System Usability Scale (SUS) questions
After testing the final prototype the participants were asked to fill the 10 SUS questions to validate the test
I think I would like to use this application frequently.
I found the product unnecessarily complex.
I thought the application was easy to use
I thought I would need tech support to be able to use this application
I found the various functions in this application well integrated
I thought there was too much inconsistency in this application
I imagine that most people would learn to use this application very quickly
I found the application very cumbersome to use
I felt very confident using this application
I need to learn a lot about this application before I could effectively use it
Results
Final feedback
The familiarity made the users more comfortable in the environment and liked it alot more than the less realistic ones.
The interactions were easy to use and obvious.
The background noise made the experience more natural.
The overall application was very easy to use.
Results
Special thanks to
Siddhant Sharan: An animator and 3D model designer who helped build the final classroom model used in the project. (Contact here)
Jason Oehlberg: Creator of a Unity project that helped me learn a lot.
Dr. Sylvia Pan, Dr Marco Gillies: Faculties at Goldsmiths, University of London for extremely informative courses on VR
