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A Classroom Experience

>   This is a project that looks at 'interaction design' for virtual reality (VR)

>   Duration: September 2019; 4 weeks

>   Tools used: Unity, SketchUp, Visual Studio, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop 

>   Skills: Design Research, 3D environment creation, VR prototyping, Interaction design, Coding

>   Team: Srinija Ghantasala, Aditi Singh, Gayathri Menon, Ambika Menon, and Anushka Jain.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

What if we can simulate a day in the life of a school-going child? Could that help many children who are unable to go back to school to re-experience their fond memories?

This is an interaction design project done with virtual reality as the medium. The aim of this project is to simulate a classroom experience. The project is built on the concept of instilling certain emotions in the user. Through this project, we aim to bring about emotions such as "longing", "curiosity", and "nostalgia." Our target audience is children of age 8-18 years. Many terminally ill children usually drop out of school due to medical conditions, financial struggles, or other reasons. Through VR, the aim is to simulate a day in a school classroom, providing interactions with objects and surroundings. This is to provide a sense of "normalcy" to these children and let them (re)experience going to school just like other children of their age.

WHAT I DID

As part of the group, I worked on all project stages, from research to ideation and prototyping. My significant contributions to this project are -

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    > I built the virtual environment on SketchUp online platform along with other teammates

    > Headed the VR interaction and coding using Microsoft Visual Studio

    > Combined the virtual environment with the coded interactions on Unity software

    > Documentation

WHAT IS THE CHALLENGE?

The challenge is to be able to "evoke emotions in users as they experience a situation in virtual reality".

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Our take on the challenge -

When a child is terminally ill and is required to drop out of school due to their medical condition or financial situation, they miss out on the whole "school life" experience. Many children want "normalcy" back in their lives and sometimes long to go back to school just like other children their age.
 

Sometimes, a child may have never been able to attend school. Our challenge is to trigger emotions such as nostalgia by creating an experience with positive interactions that trigger happy or fond memories. Triggering nostalgia through objects and interactions, wherein the user can develop a connection to their own experiences, is a more fulfilling experience.

WHY VIRTUAL REALITY?

Virtual reality enables our users to be a part of the experience from their home/ medically controlled environment without them having to move. It is a medium that makes the user feel more empowered with simple gestures/interactions. The controllers in hand can enrich the experience further.

Artboard 3.png

DESIGNING FOR VIRTUAL REALITY

I do not have any previous experience working in virtual reality, so I developed my skills by learning how to design for VR. This includes understanding object placement, coding for interactions, and designing a 3D model that mimics real-life proportions.

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Using this diagram as our reference, we planned our interactions within the classroom. This diagram helped
us place objects in the right distance and field of view. With VR, we can place objects in a 360° space, but with the help of this diagram, we can determine which objects go in the "forward" or "comfortable" view spaces and how to design interactions for them in the particular view zone.

DESIGNING THE INTERACTIONS

Artboard 4.png

DESIGNING THE ENVIRONMENT

Artboard 4.png

CODING THE INTERACTIONS

Artboard 5.png

I spent a lot of time understanding the different libraries involved to code an interaction using Microsoft Visual Studio. I have knowledge of some programming which made it easier for me to define the logic of the code.

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The actions that can be made with the controllers and the different interactions with various objects were all coded for. Gestures such as "pick up and throw" were coded for
different objects, such as paper planes and paper balls. With the material property and the code, the gesture of throwing will be more natural to the user.

 

All coding was done with C programming language.

REFLECTION

This is an interaction + experience design project that I have worked on. It was a fun experience exploring virtual reality as a medium. Before actually designing the interaction itself, there was a lot of research and ideation involved. Choosing an intervention space and specifying our target audience helped us design the environment better. We were able to list the various interactions that we want to create, and looking at the field of view zones helped us plan the placement and positioning of different objects.

 

As a future expansion, the VR experience can be made more customized to each individual. Since the experience is made for children, there is scope to work on making the environment more lively and fun. Although there are interactions like flying a paper plane, more lively activities such as drawing on the blackboard can be added to the experience as well.

Let's talk?

I would love to hear your thoughts!

©2024 by Srinija Ghantasala. All rights reserved.

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