Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Marius Aeberli

When we asked the luxury Swiss watch maker Vacheron Constantin to invest in VR, they politely responded: “Our customers don’t play video games”.

Actually, we couldn’t blame them. It was 2014 and it was hard to find VR experiences that weren’t games demonstrations. Moreover, we weren’t proposing to make a game, the project was about creating a kind of archive browser.

Within its 260 year lifespan, Vacheron Constantin had accumulated over 400 linear meters of documents. In 2014, thanks to a project with the EPFL in Switzerland (one of the two Federal Institutes of Technology), they began scanning their paper archives. The next step was to rebuild a database of the past with text recognition and machine learning. In parallel, they asked us to imagine an interactive experience to promote this heritage. The main goal wasn’t to provide a tool for specialized professionals, but to open up the archives to a wider audience. As a product designer in charge of the whole project, my job was to translate this high-level vision into a tangible immersive experience.

And now for the client’s preconceptions about VR:

“VR sets are too technical and will scare our customers”

“VR experiences are too individual”

“VR experiences are only for 360 movies”

“Our clients don’t have the patience to learn how to use it”

“It’s unhygienic”

…

Of course, at this moment we didn’t have any examples to prove them wrong. But nonetheless, we convinced them to give us a chance and we got started.

We also had some (somewhat more positive) assumptions:

“Changing the appearance of the VR installation will change the experience”

“VIP clients, like people in general, are curious if you give them reason to be”

“VR applications can be something other than linear entertainment, simulation or kinesthetic research experiences”

Questioning the look and feel of the VR Headset

To open the scope as wide as possible, we decided to work with traditional product designers. That is to say, we wanted to work with specialists in craft rather than technology. We picked four of them: Bertille Laguet, Dimitri Bähler and the Marlo & Isaure duo. We started organizing a three-day workshop around the following questions:

How can we make people less scared of VR headsets?
How can we influence the user’s feelings of vulnerability when they are cut off from reality and surrounded by strangers?
How does a lower user investment degree impression influence the experience? (If you don’t need to sit down, put something on your head and listen to a complete explanation, does the experience have a higher value to you?)
How can we decrease people’s feeling that the headsets are unhygienic?

Each of the designers followed different directions and we finally decided to develop three of their propositions further.

The noble mask — Bertille’s proposal focused around material replacement (introducing leather) and using a mask instead of a headset.

©EPFL+ECAL Lab©EPFL+ECAL — Very early paper prototype of Bertille’s mask

The fencing helmet — Dimitri explored the effect of a not-so-blind VR headset. With a different shape, the headset reminds people around that they’re maybe not so invulnerable.

©EPFL+ECAL Lab©EPFL+ECAL — Nicolas Le Moigne is testing Dimitri’s helmet prototype©EPFL+ECAL Lab, Dimitri Bähler

The binoculars — Marlo & Isaure removed the ties and put the VR device on a stand, like public city binoculars. Decreasing drastically the investment demanded of the user, people easily drop into the experience when they pass by.

©EPFL+ECAL — Lab Nicolas LeMoigne is testing very early binoculars prototype

With such radical directions for the design of VR headsets, we thought that we would also need to create dedicated controllers for navigating within the VR experience. Yuki Machida, one of our lab’s research assistants started prototyping a tailored-made controller.

©EPFL+ECAL — Yuki Machida & Bertille Laguet©EPFL+ECAL — Yuki Machida early prototype of a wheel controller

Considering the whole VR installation as a journey

Anyone who has ever tried VR knows how important the context is. It’s not just the right space or explanation that make the experience good. It’s all the conditions which make you fully available to enjoy the experience.

We tried to consider people as users from the very beginning. Not when they press the start button but from the second they see our installation.

Designer Nicolas Le Moigne created a simple setup to allow three users to try our app with different devices. Using traditional watchmaker-like stools makes the experience more comfortable; people can choose to use it or not, and the natural seat rotation allows the body and head to move freely. It’s better in VR. 😉

©EPFL+ECAL Lab, Nicolas Le Moigne©EPFL+ECAL Lab, Nicolas Le Moigne

But of course, you can invest as many resources as you want in the devices, controllers and scenography… if your app sucks, everything sucks!

Delivering an exclusive digital experience

Talking about offering something unique in the digital world sounds a bit weird, doesn’t it? But we tried anyway.

Letting the user be free to read whatever they want. We’re talking about a luxury brand here. It’s a big deal to allow the public to read or see all their data, without previous curation. Whatsmore, when you have the opportunity to discover the real day-to-day business of life in 1850, things become very interesting. Not only can you see the company’s most iconic documents, but also the bills, disputes, complaints and bad business ideas…

But giving this freedom isn’t only a concept. You also need to provide the proper digital environment to make it possible:

A dynamic VR environment. The scanning process had just started and we currently had just 1% of the total number of documents. Our application needed to be technically and visually able to welcome millions of new documents in the future.
Good conditions to browse, read and understand content. Things change depending on whether you’re watching millions, thousands, hundreds or just one single document. It’s also different when you consider the document as an object or as a text you want to read.
Appropriate tools to interact in these different modes. Moving, selecting, zooming. Different contexts mean different tools.

And about this last point:

Giving the user what he needs when he really needs it. You cannot spend the first three minutes of a five-minute user experience to learn how to use a ten-button controller. So we respected a simple principle: the longer a user spends time in the archives, the deeper they will go and the wider their interaction toolbox will be…

Make the user think they are the first. We spent time observing Vacheron Constantin salesmen interacting with visitors. When someone leaves the shop, everything is put back in order. The person entering the shop always thinks they’re the first. So, we decided to reduce the previous user’s traces too. Users never start experience where the previous user stopped. They always start at the beginning, with a welcome message.

After a couple of iteration…

©EPFL+ECAL Lab, picture by Daniela & Tonatiuh©EPFL+ECAL Lab, picture by Daniela & Tonatiuh, concept by Marlo & Isaure, design by Nicolas Le Moigne©EPFL+ECAL Lab, picture by Daniela & Tonatiuh, device by Bertille Laguet©EPFL+ECAL Lab, picture by Daniela & Tonatiuh, device by Dimitri Bähler©EPFL+ECAL Lab, picture by Daniela & Tonatiuh, device by Yuki Machida created by Egli Studio. Controllers are now wireless.

But…

We remembered that salesmen in shops take a lot of time with each visitor, sometimes up to an hour. They always do it, even if it’s sometimes clear that the person won’t buy anything.

And we realized that we were missing something.

How can we push VR beyond an individual experience?

Of course, this is not only a question related to the luxury market, but it was an excellent opportunity to start addressing it.

The idea was to create an outside VR tool to make staff or people around able to discuss and share with the VR user.

Of course, it would be nonsense to simply show a 2D version of our immersive 3D experience. Therefore, we worked on an iPad application with a dedicated UI and UX to make the experience really different. People around can read and discuss with the VR user about the content they’re consulting. Moreover, staff can provide with context explanations if necessary or guide users to specific content.

Maybe after all, the true luxury in VR is never to be alone!

©EPFL+ECAL Lab, picture by Daniela & Tonatiuh©EPFL+ECAL Lab, picture by Daniela & Tonatiuh©EPFL+ECAL Lab, picture by Daniela & Tonatiuh

Keypoints

Beyond the wow effect — Playing with VR to tease unexperienced high-end consumers is one thing, but creating an experience that really makes sense is another. Keeping people interested requires a strong cognitive experience with tangible takeaways. We’ve been lucky to work with such amazing content!

VR UX starts earlier than expected — Inappropriate physical environments can damage the VR experience. How to give key communication elements to visitors, manage queues and guide users in the VR are often underestimated.

Technology and craft can be compatible — Making the devices fit the luxury world has been a key part of this project. Users don’t know what to expect and like to touch and manipulate things. Moreover, working with craftsmen has been an incredible experience.

VR experiences are hard to promote — We’ve really underestimated this disadvantage. People cannot understand the experience without trying it. Pictures, video and explanations will never be enough. On the other hand, it contributes to make the experience more exclusive again.

Wrapping up

Exploring all these dimensions and reaching this level of completion require important resources. We are very thankful to Vacheron Constantin for their unconditional support during all our explorations. We must not forget all the talented designers and craftsmen too, for their motivation, patience and curiosity.

Moreover, we think that the key points from this project are not only related to the luxury market. Trying to create well-crafted objects with meaningful experiences can always help people, not only high-end consumers, to adopt new technologies.

VR cannot be self-sufficient and must be considered in as part of a larger environment. Pushing it beyond the early adoption bottleneck will require new ecosystems with dedicated contexts, spaces and tools. Therefore, we’ll need a wider panel of out-of-the-box-thinking designers with a variety of skills. If you’re one of them, you should check our website, we are a growing lab and looking for more people to help out.

About the EPFL+ECAL Lab

The EPFL+ECAL Lab is a laboratory located in the ECAL (University of Art and Design Lausanne) building, belonging to EPFL (Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne). Its aim is to explore the potential of emerging technologies through design and to transform scientific performance into user experience. It thus collaborates with numerous companies and institutes, working on real life projects. Its work is regularly the subject of exhibitions, conferences, and articles.

How to push VR beyond early-adoption was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How to push VR beyond early-adoption

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