Blog 01
Value of UX Design
University Assignment
Value of UX Design
Introduction to UX Design - Dream Job
Project Overview
This exercise aimed to identify and analyze the trends of User Experience Design within the field of Game Development and Virtual Reality.
Our team members consist of UX Design and Game Development majors. We crossed paths in our interests in creating immersive and fun experiences for others; whether it’s through video games or virtual reality experiences, our team hopes to incorporate UX design principles into our future work.
University Project
UX Design
Research
Timeline
January 2025
My Contributions
Individual research into a “dream job” and preparation for group discussion in the team’s skill cross-examination
Secondary research and analysis
Documentation work
Goals
Identify how UX principles can be effectively integrated into VR experiences
Develop insights for designing more immersive, accessible VR interfaces
Understand the relationship between technical constraints and user experience in virtual environments
Dream Job Exploration
Career Landscape
I identified my dream role (Product Design Manager - Metaverse at Meta) and analyzed the required skills and qualifications to understand how UX expertise is valued in my specific desired field.
Job Title: Product Design Manager - Metaverse
Company: Meta
Description:
Experienced, hands-on product design leader with people management skills and strong technical expertise. The ideal candidate is an experienced product design leader who flourishes working in an ambiguous technology space at the front end of VR & MR products and tools.
Summary:
Six years ago, I unwrapped a Google Cardboard kit for Christmas, planting the seed for my fascination with augmented and virtual reality. Ever since then, I have been eagerly keeping up with new developments in the field. The most important aspect of virtual reality is maintaining an immersive and easy user experience. This led me to choose the product design manager position at Meta as my “dream job” for this exercise.
Affinity Diagramming
Our original idea was to transform Starship robots into blind dating tour guides, where the robots would lead a date on a planned route. I led the exercise of assigning the team to individually sketch out an initial storyboard for our idea.
Experience:
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Soft:
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Technical:
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Through our findings, we noticed certain trends between what is needed for UX Design and Game Development, such as skills that involve leadership and required skills for both graphical and computer skills. Both sides strongly require management skills, technological skills, and design skills.
Research
I conducted secondary research on academic papers examining user experience in virtual environments, focusing on:
Interactions in VR/AR environments
User comfort and accessibility considerations
Factors affecting immersion and engagement
Secondary Research
My research revealed several critical insights about UX design in virtual reality:
Natural Interaction is Everything
Users expect intuitive interactions that mirror real-world movements. The most successful VR experiences use gesture-based controls that feel natural and require minimal learning.
"User immersion depends on many factors such as natural hand movement, emotional engagement, content design elements, aesthetics, display quality, and tracking accuracy."
UX Trends in VR/AR
There is an increased need for human-centered design research in VR/AR. Most hardware and software are made by technologists and engineers, but this neglects the cognitive side of VR/AR. Currently, there is an emphasis on seamless interaction and natural gestures for VR/AR interfaces, mimicking real-life experiences (Khalil, 2024; Laine, 2024). An increase in human-centered design allows for the development of stronger real-life experiences and an understanding of the cognitive load on the user.
Along with human-centered design, there are further studies in enhancing immersion. User-experience improvements target emotional engagement and user comfort by addressing factors like display quality and tracking accuracy (Riccardo et al., 2021). An increase in enhancing immersion allows UX designers to understand the user's need for emotional engagement and to enhance user comfort. The data allows them to work with technologists and engineers to refine their VR/AR equipment for better testing.
With the increase in VR/AR, there is a demand for industrial applications. VR/AR tools are increasingly used in industries for training, modeling, and collaboration, demanding UX refinement (Riccardo et al., 2021). User experience is needed to ensure that the customers can use the VR/AR tools as they are developed. Additionally, the designers will need to work with the technologists and engineers to understand what the customers need and to integrate the cognitive and technical side within VR/AR.
Outcome
Next Steps
Preform primary user research to validate findings from secondary sources
Expand research to include more diverse VR use cases beyond gaming and industrial applications
Reflections
Previously, I had thought that my dream job would be heavily influenced by technical skills; although still true, I had underestimated the value of soft skills such as communication, teamwork, and leadership.
Research is crucial in the field of UX Design. Without proper rationale for design decision, there is no value in the design.