Orbenaut, UX case study

Overview

A trip through space that you take from home: sign in on the website, pair your VR headset, and a guide called Orbe shows you the controls before you land on Mars. I designed the brand, the web screens and the interface in the headset. It was a short project, so this write-up is brief.

Aim: Send people on a mission through space, virtually and from home, and teach them a fact or two on the way.
What I did: A logo and glass style, the web sign-in and headset set-up, the sign-in flow, and the panels inside VR.
Next: A plan for sessions with five people, some of them new to VR.

Role: UI designer: brand, web screens and the in-VR interface
Timeline: Late 2021
Platform: Desktop web and VR headset
Tools: Adobe Illustrator
Deliverables: Logo and visual style, Web sign-in and headset set-up screens, Sign-in user flow, VR prototype walkthrough

What it is

A space trip for people who may never have worn a headset

The About Us page sets the aim: "to send you on a mission through space, virtually and from the comfort of your home", and "maybe even learn a fun fact or two along the way".

Flow diagram: Login leads to 'Existing user?'. Yes goes to Home. No goes to 'Create a new account', then Home. — The sign-in flow: an existing user goes straight to the home page, and a new user creates an account first.

Decisions

Do the fiddly set-up on a screen, then keep VR simple

Set up before the headset goes on. Choosing and pairing a device is fiddly, so it happens on the website: a 'How to use VR' page lists four headsets, then 'Searching' and 'Connecting VR Glasses' screens show the pairing.

A guide for first-timers. The first panel in VR says: "Hello, my name is Orbe. I will be helping you navigate this virtual travel experience." The next shows which triggers to use. Skip and Next keep returning visitors moving.

Few, large targets. Every choice is a big floating panel or a planet you point at: Earth or Mars, Land or Return, then Info 1, Info 2 or Video, each with a way back to orbit.

One visual language. The logo joins an astronaut's head, a UFO's ring and landing legs, with a satellite dish for the link to the headset, in Roboto and one blue, #3371AD. The web panels use frosted glass: a white gradient, blur and a thin white border.

Web page 'How to use VR': four headset buttons, Oculus (selected, with a green dot), HTC Vive, Google Glasses (with a Cardboard viewer icon) and Valve Index, each with a small headset icon, and a Skip button. — Choose your headset on the website, before you put it on.

VR tutorial: a translucent panel floating above a platform reads 'Hello, my name is Orbe. I will be helping you navigate this virtual travel experience', with a Skip button. — Orbe's welcome panel, the first thing you see in the headset.

VR planet selector: Earth and Mars float above a platform labelled Earth and Mars, and a pointer from the controller is aimed at Mars. — Choosing a destination: point at a planet and pull the trigger.

The logo: an astronaut and a UFO in one mark, with a dish for the link to the headset.

Glassmorphism board: a frosted grey panel with a blue-bordered field over a purple circle, with notes on a 40% white linear gradient, the blur value and a white element border. — The glass style used for the web panels.

Solution

From sign-in to the surface of Mars

The cut below follows one trip, from sign-in to the fact panels on Mars: its size, where it is, a day there and what is inside, plus Curiosity rover videos from Gale Crater. The Mars imagery, facts and videos come from NASA/JPL (mars.nasa.gov).

An 83-second cut of the 131-second recording. I removed the stretches where the view was blank. There is no sound: the original music is not included. 1:23, no sound

Mars surface in VR: a panel headed 'Mars' asks 'How big is Mars?' and shows a NASA 'Mars facts: volume' graphic, which says it would take more than six Mars to fill the volume of Earth. — A fact panel on the surface. Graphic: NASA/JPL, mars.nasa.gov.

Next steps and reflection

How I'd test it, and what I'd change

The plan: ask five people, some new to VR, to pair a headset, finish the tutorial, land on Mars and find how long a day there lasts. I'd measure completion, time and requests for help, and check comfort with a simulator sickness questionnaire.

Looking back, I'd fix legibility first: the tutorial's grey text on a grey panel is hard to read even on a monitor, and worse in a headset. I'd raise the contrast, enlarge the type and keep panels at a comfortable distance. I'd also add a seated mode, an option without the triggers, and captions for the videos.