VR Immersiveness and Inclusiveness

While the first generation of VR devices is still concerned with its own usability and usefulness, product features like display resolution, frame rates, product weight, and comfort dominate the conversation, whereas more aspirational aspects like shared experiences, human interactions, and other positive outcomes are much lower on the list of priorities. Mapping out the VR devices that are on the market today or are slated to be shipped later in 2016 according to their immersiveness and inclusiveness the results are clear — while current products support different levels of immersiveness, they all fall short in bringing other people into the VR experience.

The trajectory for second generation headsets points to increased immersive qualities – the current key ingredient in creating premium VR experiences. Future virtual reality devices will become untethered, smaller, and lighter, and thus more mobile, further “tune out” physical reality with more lifelike 3D video and audio, and stimulate other senses beyond sight and sound.

But what if there was another primary objective in the design of VR hardware to juxtapose the inevitable idea of “immersion” with? We believe that if VR is to have more positive outcomes than pure immersive fun (that will eventually either become tiresome, or lead to not so preferable scenario’s), VR manufacturers need to create affordances for inclusion. Our challenge as designers is to find the right balance between immersion and inclusion for each type of VR product – from the headset aimed at the hard-core gamer, to the device that brings VR content to the mainstream.

Adding the aspect of “inclusion” of others will be instrumental to shaping a preferable future for both VR brands, and their customers. Future inclusive VR experiences will need to allow others to participate in or observe a user’s virtual reality, facilitate the effortless human interaction with others, both in the virtual and physical reality, and enable consumers to comfortably navigate between virtual and physical reality.

On the surface, the ideas of immersion and inclusion seem to be polar opposites. But I believe that VR experiences do not necessarily have to reside on a single spot in the continuum between the two. They can be adaptive to the situation and cover a range of more or less inclusive or immersive experiences. Setting out to do – explore how immersion and inclusion might be harmonized in VR hardware experiences for the gaming enthusiast and for the mainstream consumer can prove to be very rewarding. These ideas outline what I believe to be not only impactful, but feasible solutions for VR in 2020.