As you have experienced the HTC Vive, 1) What was the part of the experience you liked most? How might you enhance or expand the experience? 2) What was the part of your experience you liked least and how might the design team address/improve it?

I observed people this previous week while they interacted with the HTC Vive within virtual reality; however, I have used the HTC Vive before to explore terrains, as well as illustrate in TiltBrush. The experience I liked most was being able to explore environments (essentially, new worlds) within virtual reality, and truly feel like I am there. I’m a gamer with an active imagination, and so I couldn’t help myself from thinking about the worlds I could see, what environments that are currently inaccessible to me would then be accessible. I might try to expand on this aspect of exploration by exploring modes of transportation, and making that experience feel as real as other features are.

The part of my experience I liked the least was actually creating in TiltBrush. I think the concept is fun and allows barriers to be broken down with regard to accessibility to drawing/creativity. Where it breaks for me is the difficulty with depth perception. I don’t know how deep my brush is in this limitless canvas, and that directly affects how my creation will unfold. As a design intervention, aside from visual cues within the virtual environment, I would think a tensile sensor would be helpful on your arm. The further your reach, the more tension/resistance is applied to your arm. I can see how this would be limiting to free form drawing, which is unfortunate. But the lack of depth perception cues when you haven’t assigned a focal point in 3D space (such as a rock, or a model to draw AROUND) is quite frustrating.