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immersive environments

A Guide to Creating Immersive Environments for Virtual Communities

Virtual spaces open a new frontier for engagement, connection, and community building. These digital worlds hold a unique power beyond replicating our physical world to augmenting it, presenting experiences and opportunities beyond our traditional reality.

We’ll explore how we can foster a sense of belonging, stimulate interaction, and create compelling, immersive experiences that keep visitors coming back.

Whether you’re a 3D designer, a virtual event planner, or someone curious about the potential of virtual spaces, this episode provides insights into creating virtual worlds that engage and captivate.

User Onboarding & Accessibility

🌱 Create a Welcoming Environment

When newcomers arrive in your virtual world, guide them using welcome signs and initial instructions. Explaining what they can do and what they can expect will help visitors get familiar with their surroundings. Signage or maps can reduce any initial confusion or uncertainty and allow them to start exploring your space comfortably.

No alt text provided for this image — photo credit: TarapeuticVR in Rec Room

💡 Interactive Tutorials

Offering tutorials can demystify any unique features. By showing specific functions, movements, or actions, you empower visitors to engage with your virtual experience.

Immersive Experience Design

🔍 Sense of Discovery

Avoid revealing everything at once. Begin by placing users in a smaller space. This approach not only prevents overwhelm but also enhances the feeling of wonder and anticipation as they embark on their exploration.

🌐 Immersive Design

Use 3D models, texture, and quality sound effects, to create an immersive experience. Let your imagination run wild as you explore vibrant colors, shapes, and sizes.

🌦️ Dynamic Environments

Creating a lively atmosphere with changing scenery, weather effects, day and night cycles, or reactive elements. Make the environment dynamic rather than static with changing scenery or interactive objects that react to movement.

Community Dynamics

🏘️ Community Building

Facilitate community building with features like forums, shared spaces, community events, and collaborative projects. Fostering a sense of community can significantly increase engagement.

📆 Calendar of Events

Establish a calendar of events and allow users to subscribe or RSVP. Regular events foster community, maintain interest and keep the environment dynamic.

🔥 Popular Interests

Aligning your content with current news and trends can spark new conversations. Consider inviting thought leaders or communities relevant to your own, or expose your community to new and enlightening learnings.

Engaging Content & Activities

👓 Wearables

Providing wearables that users can interact with. These can range from fun costumes and unique accessories to everyday items like a cup of coffee. They can also enable role-playing or other interactive elements that enhance the social aspect of the environment.

🎮 Mini-games

Introduce games or challenges related to the theme of your virtual world. These activities can provide entertainment, encourage collaboration, and add an element of fun.

🤖 Leveraging NPCs

Use non-player characters (NPCs) to enhance user experience. These programmed guides can navigate visitors through the space, initiate activities, and offer additional learning touchpoints.

Competition & Progression

🏅 Achievements and Rewards

Incorporating a system of achievements and rewards can motivate users to further engage with your virtual environment. Some examples include badges, points, or unlockable content for completing tasks or challenges.

📈 Leaderboards

By adding leaderboards, you can acknowledge and reward engagement within your community. Whether it’s recognizing the most interactive player, the longest-standing member, or high performers in various activities.

💰 Virtual Economy

Creating a virtual economy where users can earn, trade, and spend virtual currency.

Emotional Engagement & Wellbeing

❤️ Emotional Connection

Go beyond mere engagement and seek to create a profound impact that deeply resonates with individuals. By leveraging the power of storytelling and immersive design, the experience transforms into a captivating moment of wonder, fostering genuine emotional connections with others in a state of reverie.

🧘 Mindful of Wellness

Moments that unite us physically and virtually hold immense value, cultivating a sense of shared experience and social presence.

Real-world Integration & Social Sharing

🔗 Content Integration

Allowing visitors to integrate elements of the virtual world into their real-world environment, and vice versa, using AR technology. This blending of realities can make the virtual experience more engaging pre or post-events.

📣 Social Sharing Features

Giving community the opportunities to share their experiences, achievements, or created content on social media platforms. This can enhance engagement and also attract new visitors to the virtual world.

Quelle:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/guide-creating-immersive-environments-virtual-andy-fidel-/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&utm_campaign=share_via

28. Juli 2023 0 comment

Examples Research

Want To Improve Your Brain Power? Try VR!

WASHINGTON: People remember information better if it is presented to them in a virtual environment as opposed to desktop computers, researchers, including one of Indian origin, have found.

The study, published in the journal Virtual Reality, found that people learn better through virtual, immersive environments as opposed to more traditional platforms like a two-dimensional desktop computer or hand-held tablet.

„This data is exciting in that it suggests that immersive environment could offer new pathways for improved outcomes in education and high-proficiency training,“ said Amitabh Varshney, a professor at the University of Maryland in the US.

For the study, the team used the concept of a „memory palace,“ – where people recall an object or item by placing it in an imaginary physical location like a building or town.

The method has been used since classical times, taking advantage of the human brain’s ability to spatially organise thoughts and memories.

„Humans have always used visual-based methods to help them remember information, whether it’s cave drawings, clay tablets, printed text and images, or video,“ said Eric Krokos, a doctoral student at the University of Maryland.

The researchers recruited 40 volunteers – mostly students unfamiliar with virtual reality. They split the participants into two groups: one viewed information first via a VR head-mounted display and then on a desktop; the other did the opposite.

Both groups received printouts of well-known faces and familiarised themselves with the images. They then showed the participants the faces using the memory palace format with two imaginary locations.

Both of the study groups navigated each memory palace for five minutes. Desktop participants used a mouse to change their viewpoint, while VR users turned their heads.

Next, the users were asked to memorise the location of each of the faces shown. Half the faces were positioned in different locations within the interior setting – Oprah Winfrey appeared at the top of a grand staircase; Stephen Hawking was a few steps down, followed by Shrek.

On the ground floor, Napoleon Bonaparte’s face sat above majestic wooden table, while Martin Luther King Jr was positioned in the centre of the room.

Similarly, for the medieval town setting, users viewed images that included Hillary Clinton’s face on the left side of a building, with Mickey Mouse and Batman placed at varying heights on nearby structures.

Then, the scene went blank, and after a two-minute break, each memory palace reappeared with numbered boxes where the faces had been. The research participants were then asked to recall which face had been in each location where a number was now displayed.

The key was for participants to identify each face by its physical location and its relation to surrounding structures and faces – and also the location of the image relative to the user’s own body.

The results showed an 8.8 per cent improvement overall in recall accuracy using the VR headsets, a statistically significant number according to the research team.

Many of the participants said the immersive „presence“ while using VR allowed them to focus better. This was reflected in the research results: 40 per cent of the participants scored at least 10 per cent higher in recall ability using VR over the desktop display.

„Recent research in cognitive psychology suggests that the mind is inherently embodied, and that the way humans create and recall mental constructs is influenced by the way they perceive and move,“ said Catherine Plaisant, a senior research scientist at the University of Maryland.

„This leads to the possibility that a spatial virtual memory palace — experienced in an immersive virtual environment – could enhance learning and recall by leveraging a person’s overall sense of body position, movement and acceleration,“ she said.

„By showing that virtual reality can help improve recall, it opens the door to further studies that look at the impact of VR-based training modules at all levels – from elementary school children learning astronomy to trauma residents acquiring the latest knowledge in lifesaving procedures,“ Varshney added.

Quelle:
https://vrroom.buzz/vr-news/trends/want-improve-your-brain-power-try-vr

28. Juni 2018 0 comment