As a designer, I’ve always enjoyed watching Apple’s WWDC and Google’s I/O events as they come out. It gives you a taste of things to come and prepares you for new styles of design and interaction models that will soon be in the hands of billions of people. I find them a great creative catalyst that helps me to reconsider and challenge some of my ways of thinking.
Being an Oculus Quest 2 user, I have experienced and used a similar type of device — but Apple’s take seems to be (virtual) worlds apart. Here are my top three takeaways from the event.
Connecting to the real-world
One of the first details that I noticed, which I love, is how they have tried to incorporate the real world into the experience. Rather than completely disappear into a virtual world you can still experience real life while using the device.
Remember those floating torsos during the Quest demo? With Apple’s Vision Pro, it seems that you have the option to scan your face and use that recording as a photo-realistic 3D model of your face which can move realistically in a spatial environment, like a FaceTime call.
In addition to you appearing (almost) real to others when you put your headset on, it appears that your immediate surroundings are also at hand. When you put the headset on, it appears that you are placed in the room in which you are sitting. The UI and various floating screens and widgets appear within that space, customisable to suit your needs. This way you can enjoy the benefits of a spatial UI experience without the nauseating disorientation of being transported into a space-ship or some other 3D-rendered scene.
If you do opt for a more immersive experience though by placing yourself into a completely virtual reality, when someone approaches you, the headset will detect this and begin to fade them into view. This connection to the real world in a seemingly seamless way seems to address some of the biggest challenges of prior VR headsets. No more bruised shins from walking into the coffee table!
What’s more, the person on the other side of the device will also be able to see from looking at the device what level of immersion you are in through the ability to see your eyes or not. These visual cues that lean on real-world patterns, like eye contact, help to make this all feel a little less alien.
Using your body as navigation
The next thing that caught my attention was the input method used for navigation: it seems that you navigate simply by looking. It's no longer point-and-click; it's now look-and-tap. With your eyes fixed on a piece of UI, which will react to your gaze, you simply tap your thumb and forefinger together and an outward-facing camera will capture your intent to "click" on that UI element.
Having fumbled around to grasp the Quest controllers, this simple extension of body-as-an-input takes an interesting approach to solving the challenge of interacting with a virtual world using physical inputs which are hard to see.
In addition to look-and-tap, there is of course voice input. Being a Scotsman though, I struggle to get excited about voice input given that more than a decade after being first introduced to it, most devices fail miserably to actually understand what I am saying. I’ll be curious to see what the alternative option for voice input will be.
Deep immersion
Lastly, I’d like to touch on how they have tackled the sense of immersion. As mentioned earlier, when you pop the headset on, you can still be in your current physical space. With a quick spin of a small watch-like crown, you can choose the level of immersion you’d like. I found this an interesting and light-touch way to move between real and virtual worlds without needing to remove the headset.
In addition, they also introduced a collaboration with Disney and some truly immersive experiences. It looked like the pause screen on Amazon Prime but on steroids. Instead of just showing who is on the screen you are spoiled by complementary visualisations and rich, interactive information.
The most striking example of this was the basketball action replay where the court seemed to appear out of thin air onto the coffee table in front of you. The level of detail and seamless transition from watching the game to watching an action replay was truly impressive. I’m sceptical about how much of that experience will make it into the final product when it launches, but that would be a real game-changer.
Dear Santa...
Despite all of the hype, we still have some time to wait before we will see these in real life. Apple announced that sales will start in the US in early 2024 with other countries following later in the year. So no surprises this year from Santa! That being said, even when they do land they come with quite a hefty price tag of $3,499 — ten times as much as the Oculus Quest 2!
Powering this week's thoughts
Music plays such an important role when I am thinking, working, and reflecting. I also find it interesting to see what others are listening to. It's a gateway into an aspect of their personality. That's why I'd like to share, with each article, an artist or playlist that I have been listening to that week. Here's this week’s: