Spatial experience design for public spaces

Timeline

2023-2024

Role

UX Design

Tools

Unity

Platform

VR Headset

Summary

An interactive virtual reality experience. This digital twin is based on one of the real-world Miami Lakes Park, located in Miami Lakes, Florida. This park, alongside another park in Miami Springs hold a special place in my life, since I have been going to them since I arrived to the United States a few years ago. I usually go to either one on the weekend mornings before starting my day, and what I love is all the sport court amenities and variety of people that visit.

Features

  • The user can navigate through the park using the Meta Quest Pro controllers

  • Ability to teleport (using a teleport area) if player desires a faster navigation

  • Mini-missions that the player can complete to get more context of the area, and learn about other people (characters) stories

  • Music stops where player can interact and change the background music

  • Interactive info panels that give insights into Miami Lakes Park and its users

  • Other interactive elements include sports artifacts (e.g., tennis ball, soccer ball, basketball, etc.)

UI Info panels

  • I created my own UI using Adobe illustrator to create icons, button states, and UI panels that I then export as (.pngs) into Unity.

  • It was imperative to comply with simple user experience principles such as giving users visibility of system status (#heuristic principle 1) and providing affordances to users as to which items were interactive vs static

  • I used a neon green for information panels as well as the “interactive” areas where player could go; it was important to help guide the player in a large world like this

UI music stops

  • As an additional interactive component, I included several '“music stops” throughout the park, to give an incentive to player to roam and discover them

  • I used purple for the music stops as a reference to my other music-based project called Sorisync Music (click here to read more about it) which uses purple as its theme color palette

First iteration

  • Some characters show dialog boxes when approached; this helps give the player more context and learn about what goes on in an average day at Miami Lakes Park
  • The beginning stage of the world building
  • I used a reference image from google images in order to ensure scale and layout was consistent with the digital twin
  • The result was this geometric shape that is hollow, and also easy to grab and rotate, while light and comfortable for users [it was tested to ensure durability if dropped]

Latest iteration

  • This screenshot shows one of the interactive areas where the player can grab the basketball and throw in the hoops
  • There are other sport courtyards such as soccer, baseball field, and tennis
  • The background was now changed to a sunset view, which fits the aesthetic and objective of the digital twin, since I usually go to the park to watch the sunsets
  • The info panels were now updated with motifs that represent Miami, as well as include the logo of the Town of Miami Lakes

New features

  • Implement a map for quick teleportation across the for corners of the map (North, South, West, East).
  • I also mapped this feature to the "A" button on the right controller for user to access easily at any time.
  • Press 'B' to Play/Pause: Explore Unlocked Songs and Navigate with Forward/Backward Buttons.

Miami Lakes park [VR]: demo video