Exploring the Virtual Senses

Checkpoint human a VR project

Sector Virtual Reality

Client Hague University of Applied Sciences

My Role UX design, Project Lead, Programming

Project Time 9 Days

Project Background

During my third school year I participated in the Human Computer Interaction course. In this course we would have to work together in a team for two weeks to create a memorable interactive experience with innovative technology from the medium of our choosing. I chose the medium of Virtual Realilty.

Client Info

The Hague University of Applied Sciences (De Haagse Hogeschool) is an internationally oriented Dutch institution with campuses in The Hague, Delft, and Zoetermeer. Founded in 1987, it hosts around 26,000 students from over 120 countries. THUAS offers a wide range of associate, bachelor’s, and master’s programs in both Dutch and English, with a strong focus on applied sciences and practical research through its Centres of Expertise. The university emphasizes diversity, innovation, and global citizenship under the motto: “Let’s change. You. Us. The world.”

The Problem

Due to poor planning from the Educative organization, many obstacles both in-and external were inadvertently created that put extra stress factors on top of a deadline that many teams would have to face.

Limited Time vs New Technology

Nine days is enough time for most prototypes or to learn something new. Nine days to do both is not.

Bad work environment & equipment

The building’s internet was not strong or stable, and the hardware was old. This would slow down the work progress.

Inexperienced & uncooperative guidance

During the event, it became apparent that next to no help could or would be given from the staff. We were on our own.

A new team

The teams were made by the staff and not by the people in question, no one knew each other or their expertise.

The Goal

Creating a memorable event for people to experience with the use of new and innovative technology

Create a memorable event

We would learn to create, manage and host our own event, that would help us share modern idea’s and issues that we wanted to portray through this new medium.

Learn to master a new medium

Through effort and dedication we would learn to explore and master (to an extent) how the new medium worked and the potential it has for creation and expression.

Making a plan

From the start it became quite clear that all kinds of obstacles would hinder us along the way, some already known, others yet waiting to be encountered. Nonetheless, I needed to succeed in this project, or I would not be able to proceed forward with my study, and by extension my career. So when the team met for the first time, I asked everyone three important questions:

What’s your name, What are you good at, and What do you wish to learn?

This information would give us a basis upon which true teamwork could be built. Through this and a bit more talking, it became apparent that there were only two people (one of which was me) who had experience with coding and the Unity game engine in which we needed to work. Of the two of us I was the only one that had experience with working and developing for VR. So I pointed out some of the problems and realities that we would face during production, number one being that while we were told to take time to try out and experience the new technology by the faculty, we would at the end still be graded and judged by them based on our overall result and not our effort. So we had to be realistic about what was and wasn’t achievable given our circumstances.

So we spend the first two of our nine days getting to properly know one another whilst brainstorming for an idea that would be fun to do, but that was also achievable. We also organically formed a team structure in this time frame, wherein my roll would be both the team lead, UX designer and head programmer.

Prototyping

My Brownies HCI Labweek backup - Image 2

An instructional picture we made for the VR experience

The front & back of the room the user would experience

Eventually we landed upon a topic we wanted to explore, that of artificial intelligence and how it was getting harder to tell the difference between something made by a man or a machine. After we decided on that topic, we quickly came up with an idea to express this directly to our users. In our event a singular user would be put inside of an office like space where they would be presented with various artifacts (pictures, audio & videos) and after inspecting/viewing each artifact they would decide through buttons which category the artifact belonged to [Human] or [AI]. After inputing their anwser the user would be shown wheter they were wrong or rigth in their assumptions.

My Brownies HCI Labweek backup - Image 3

A thought provoking message we showed to each user at the end of the event

When a user reviewed the final artifact, we presented them with a message that conveyed our topic directly and that would hopefully push our users to think about their own perception in a fast changing and evolving tech world.

On day 5 we came to the venue only to find that a massive leakage had occurred in the building, a building full of active electrical equipment. The cleanup cost everyone at the event a lot of precious work hours and loads of stress.

We had a total of 6 days to make and refine a prototype, with the last of the sixth day used to create the event venue and set it up for users to experience. But a lot of other factors hindered this project from near completion during these six stressful days. Ranging from technical failures and hiccups, the event venue’s Wi-Fi not properly working or being slower than a pigeon carrying a USB stick and many other problems. Through thick and thin we pushed through, and soon we would be ready for the ninth and final day. The event day.

Project Conclusion

This was the pamphlet we made for our event

On the final day after all the obstacles were overcome we managed to see the fruits of our labor, as our booth got swamped by many users with different thoughts and backgrounds to come and experience our event. Every single user that had experienced our event was both amazed and shocked by the revelations of our event, of particular note was that no one managed to get a perfect score.

The whole team managed to each walk away with a solid 8 out of 10 for our grades, meaning our mission was successful as both we and our event users walked away with an unforgettable experience.