The Elements of VR Usability
Offering two options for the user:
People with simulation sickness issues: Teleportation method.
Gamers without motion sickness issues: Smooth locomotion classic thumbstick control (first-person shooters method).
Catering to different user types and their preferences:
Seated position vs standing position
One-handed mode
Right vs left-handed modes
Making it fun and intuitive. For a VR environment that requires a lot of object exploration and inspection, it is important to be able to "force pull" objects from the distance into the user's hands for inspection.
The availability of snap rotation for a positive VR experience. A snap rotation with a 15° angle will help the user to reorient when necessary.
Half-Life: Alyx has been praised for its overall game design, interaction concepts, attention to detail, and storytelling. Alyx is regarded by the game industry as one of the most ambitious, most complete, and most convincing large-scale immersive entertainment productions that VR has seen up to this point. It brings customizable user experience that builds on the most important UX design core elements for a satisfying immersive worlds.
According to Hillmann (2021), the role of a UX designer in the process of designing for VR is to keep the focus on the users' needs, advocate accessibility and usability standards, and take user agency through the constantly changing digital landscape, putting the user at the center of this transformation and creating solutions that turn these needs into meaningful experiences.
There are multiple applications that enable recognizing the problems occurring in XR during the design process. Microsoft Maquette is an application that helps with the ideation and prototyping process for XR. Maquette lets the XR designer sketch out ideas and create mockups and thus allowing them to communicate concepts to stakeholders and clients.