You're a designer who needs to create a prototype. How can you find the best virtual reality tools?

Exploring the aesthetics and design concepts used in immersive art installations can provide valuable insights for creating a unique virtual reality experience. Additionally, studying the biomechanics and physiology of animals can provide innovative ideas for simulating realistic interactions in the virtual environment.

Start thinking about how would someone intuitively interact with it? These is my main consideration as a designer to keep in mind when designing for immersive, spatial experiences. Designers that work in immersive experiences need to understand how someone will experience: -> Embodied interactions, or how an object reacts when your hand or controller performs a hover or press action. -> Rendering, or how an object is drawn, textured, and reacts to light. Define scenarios of interaction and learnings to be test and show to your audience. How the VR experience differentiate from a 2D design?

If you are starting, I recommend the usage of Blender, this is a free and open-source 3D software suite utilized by many VR development - It's very intuitive and you can create demos for presentations and user researches. Another option if you have more experience in VR will be Maya, it offers a high level of control and precision for your prototyping. If you have doubts or even would like to know how to use different programs, join VR group on linkedIn. Many tools exist today, and practice on 2 or 3 tools can allow you to find the peculiarities of each software to fine tune your designer goals.

When choosing a platform to create virtual reality prototypes, it is important to consider the compatibility with the operating system, check the technical requirements, analyze the learning curve, and research the available technical support options. Key Takeaways: Check the platform's compatibility with the operating system. Analyze the technical requirements necessary for the proper functioning of the tools. Consider the learning curve of each platform. Research the technical support options provided by the developers. This information will help in choosing the appropriate platform and ensure a better experience in creating virtual reality prototypes.

As Jon Lax, VP of Product Design for Reality Labs, often says, “Demos win arguments.” Once you are building your VR Model, don't get focus on the high fidelity model! Interact at each stage of your process with your team and target user to learn and get feedback of features and journey to allow your high fidelity model be interactive and have perceived value to them. Tooling testing can be made as well using 2 different tools for the same prototype to check what fits better for your project at initial stage before you deep dive and increase your project expertise to invest more time and effort for details and VR interaction experience between audience and your prototype.

VR development tools provide robust compatibility with multiple diverse tools. Amazon Sumerian, for example, supports popular VR devices such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, while others may be more limited. It's crucial you look into exactly how compatible the chosen tools are with your VR devices to provide an enhanced experience.

Basically, it is difficult to suggest a particular set of VR tools that can provide best results in terms of designing. Since the concept of using VR in terms of prototyping itself is rare, so suggestions do vary. Although the criteria more or less remain same which can be 💡: 🔍 Research: Do read some reviews available in public forums which are authentic and join VR community 🤝 Network: No better platform than LinkedIn to connect with VR designers and seek suggestions or attending VR conferences 🛠️ Trial Version: Make better use of these versions to understand the feature before finalizing 💼 Compatibility: Verify whether the selected tools can perform coherently based on the industry requirements