Designing for virtual reality: 3 tips for content strategists

Original article: Designing for virtual reality: 3 tips for content strategists

TL;DR

The article discusses the unique aspects of VR storytelling and suggests a new approach for content strategy, inspired by immersive theater, location-based tours, and exploration video games. It presents three paradigms: giving the audience a defined role in the story, utilizing the setting to establish mood, and gently introducing people to the experience. The content strategist’s role in VR is identified as guiding the audience through immersive, relatable, and clear narratives.

Bullet points

  1. 🎭 Emphasize on Participant Roles: In VR experiences, the audience isn’t merely a spectator. Instead, they are active participants in the narrative, contributing to the story progression. This mirrors the interactive nature of immersive theater, where the audience often has a defined role within the performance.

  2. 🏞️ Utilize the Environment to Set the Mood: In a VR environment, the setting isn’t just a backdrop; it is a character in itself. The use of various visual and audio cues can evoke specific moods, similar to the way a story’s setting can influence its tone in literature.

  3. 🕹️ Ease the Audience into the Experience: VR presents a new paradigm with spatial interactions. To ensure a smooth user experience, it is essential to guide the audience into learning how to interact in this new environment. Drawing inspiration from video games, VR experiences should introduce new interactions gradually, allowing users to adapt comfortably.

  4. 🤹 Incorporate Interaction: Audience participation isn’t limited to the narrative progression. Users can interact with the environment, influencing the story as they engage with objects in the VR world. This approach aligns with the mechanics of story exploration video games.

  5. 💭 Think About Narrative Structure: While VR is a unique medium, it can borrow storytelling techniques from other immersive experiences. Live theater, location-based visitor tours, and first-person video games all serve as sources of inspiration for crafting narratives in VR.

  6. 👥 Engage with Non-verbal Communication: In VR experiences, communication isn’t limited to verbal dialogue. Audiences use avatars to express themselves, relying on gestures and emotes to interact. Content strategists should consider this aspect when developing narratives.

  7. 📚 Use Existing Design Patterns as a Guide: VR is still an evolving medium with room for exploration. However, existing design patterns from other interactive mediums can offer valuable insights and act as guides during the VR content development process.

  8. 👓 Remember the Immersion: The essence of VR lies in its immersive nature. The audience’s ability to enter the story allows for deeper, emotional connections between the narrative and the user. Content strategists should harness this immersion to enhance the overall storytelling experience.

Keywords

  • Immersive Experience: This refers to a simulated reality where a user can interact with their surroundings and perform a variety of actions. In the context of the blog post, it describes the way VR allows users to be part of the story.

  • Content Strategy: This is an aspect of user experience design that involves planning and managing content in an effective and structured manner. In the context of the blog post, it relates to the task of structuring and presenting narratives in VR experiences.

  • Avatar: This refers to a graphical representation of a user in a virtual reality environment or on the internet. In the blog post, it represents the means by which users express themselves non-verbally in VR experiences.

  • Non-verbal Communication: This is a type of communication that doesn’t use words but instead uses body language, facial expressions, and other visual cues. In the blog post, it describes how users communicate in VR experiences.

  • Story Exploration Video Games: These are video games where the story unfolds through the player’s interactions with the game environment. The blog post uses this as an example of interactive storytelling.

  • Location-based Visitor Tours: This refers to experiences where a story or information is presented to visitors based on their specific location. In the blog post, it is used as a reference for how VR can use the environment to influence the narrative.

  • Live Theater: This is a type of performance art that involves actors performing on stage in front of an audience. In the blog post, it serves as an example of immersive, interactive storytelling.