10 Usability Heuristics Applied to Virtual Reality

Summary: 

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Jakob Nielsen&#;s 10 usability heuristics can improve the user experience of VR applications.

Occasionally, attendees in our seminar, Emerging Patterns in Interface Design will ask about the best practices for designing virtual-reality applications. My answer always leads to Jakob Nielsen&#;s 10 usability heuristics for interface design. From websites and mobile apps to video games and yes, even virtual reality, these heuristics maintain relevance.

In what follows, we look at each of the 10 usability heuristics applied to virtual reality. Specifically, these examples are from the Oculus Quest headset.

Note: these screenshots are from a 3D virtual environment, so you will notice curves and shadows unsuited for a 2D environment like this webpage.

1. Visibility of System Status

The design should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within a reasonable amount of time.

Systems that clearly communicate their current state foster trust and predictability.

In the main navigation for Oculus Quest, known as the universal menu, battery life for both the headset and controllers displayed in the bottom left. Battery life is presented as four circles (communicating approximate quarters), but users can hover over one of the three icons (left controller, headset, right controller) to see precise battery percentages. This information communicates the current state of the system hardware and may influence player&#;s behavior.

Similarly, in Bogo, a game where players interact with a virtual pet, a heart icon shows how much brushing still needs to be done in order to progress to the next phase of the adventure. Once the heart is full, the user can move on (or keep brushing if they wish to do so).   

2. Match Between System and the Real World

The design should speak the users' language. Use words, phrases, and concepts familiar to the user, rather than internal jargon. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.

Many people have little to no experience with virtual reality and thus rely on past (physical and digital) experiences to drive their behaviors and expectations in the virtual realm. Building on existing mental models helps users (correctly) predict interactions in a VR system. In fact, since virtual reality often has a close relationship with actual reality, it ought to be easier to apply this heuristic for VR designers than it sometimes might be for traditional 2D-GUI designers.

Immersed, a digital work environment, allows users to work with others in familiar settings like coffee shops and conference rooms. In these spaces, users can share screens and brainstorm ideas on a whiteboard (like in the real world). The whiteboard element can be locked or unlocked with a state-switch icon at the top. (While this is not how you interact with a physical whiteboard, at least the padlock icon embodies a strong physical metaphor.)

3. User Control and Freedom

Users often perform actions by mistake. They need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted action without having to go through an extended process.

Getting stuck in a virtual environment can be frustrating. Providing a way out, through buttons like Back or Exit, supports users&#; sense of freedom and can get them out of an unpleasant experience.

For example, in Beat Saber, a music-based video game, avatars can be customized or randomly generated (via an unlabeled die button). Even when users accidentally click the die button, the Cancel button allows them to abandon the customization screen and keep the previous avatar. Users can also click the Back button next to the die, which reverts the avatar back to the previous version.

In contrast, in the ESPN application, when prompted to sign in with a TV provider like Comcast or Hulu, users are unable to go back to the provider-selection screen. For instance, a user who selects Hulu cannot change their mind and navigate back to the selection screen (unless they exit the application and restart the process). It&#;s likely that users won&#;t know their login credentials at the time of this interaction, especially since referencing physical notes or a digital password manager is no easy feat while wearing a headset. A Back button would allow users to revisit the selection screen and browse offerings or even  select a different provider (in case they made a mistake). Without a Back button, users may be forced to  exit the app. (Unfortunately, Oculus blacks out this type of content during screen recording, so we are not able to provide a screenshot for this interaction.)

4. Consistency and Standards

Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform and industry conventions.

Jakob&#;s law of user experience says that users spend most of their time on websites other than yours. Since many of these follow design standards and users are familiar with them, interfaces that go against these standards are prone to increasing user&#;s cognitive load.

Toggle switches are digital on&#;off switches that are present throughout the web. They&#;re also common in virtual environments where users can choose between two mutually exclusive options (like notifications on or off). In Gravity Sketch, a 3D drawing tool, what should be a toggle switch is visualized as a slider, which is confusing and unnecessarily increases the interaction cost. In Settings, to turn the grid on or off, users must click and drag a knob. This interaction requires more effort than a switch and it fails to meet user&#;s expectations. Despite this poor design, at least Gravity Sketch is internally consistent and uses a similar visual design for all its toggles.

5. Error Prevention

Good error messages are important, but the best designs carefully prevent problems from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions, or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.

Interface slips and mistakes happen all the time. Aim to design proactive systems that can anticipate and prevent errors.

A guardian is a game-play boundary defined by the user. In Oculus, when a player approaches the predefined guardian, a grid appears on screen, to warn them. Many games recommend a minimum guardian size to ensure a reliable and consistent experience. When users play Vader Immortal with a guardian smaller than the recommended gameplay size, they are shown a warning. This information can prevent errors by 1) subtly encouraging users to move to a space where they can have a larger boundary and 2) stressing caution while playing the game to avoid physical harm.

Similarly, in National Geographic Explore VR, before users leave an uncompleted activity, they are prompted with a confirmation message. This message warns users that their current activity progress with be lost if they choose to leave at this point.

6. Recognition Rather than Recall

Minimize the user's memory load by making elements, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the interface to another. Information required to use the design (e.g. field labels or menu items) should be visible or easily retrievable when needed.

Humans&#; short-term memory has a limited capacity and virtual experiences are often complex enough (especially for new users). Don&#;t overburden VR users by asking them to remember additional information.

Unlabeled icons with tooltips are a frequent culprit of memory strain in VR interfaces. Throughout Oculus, there were many instances of unlabeled icons.  To see what the icons mean, users could hover to reveal a tooltip with the icon description. This design forces users to either memorize the meaning of the icons or put in additional effort to uncover the label.

In contrast, National Geographic Explore VR promotes recognition over recall when users engage in activities like taking photos. Instead of asking users to recall which of their controller buttons to use in order to take a photo, the controls (with labels) are shown on screen.

7. Flexibility and Efficiency of Use

Shortcuts &#; hidden from novice users &#; may speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the design can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.

Virtual environments, like traditional interfaces, must cater to novice and experienced users. Good defaults are important to keeping everyone happy, but shortcuts and customizations may be needed to keep experienced users engaged.

For instance, Beat Saber players can modify their game experience to make it more challenging and enjoyable. This feature makes the gameplay flexible and customizable. Once the modifications are set, they persist for future game sessions, so users don&#;t need to define them again.

Firefox Reality, a browser designed for virtual reality, allowed users to tailor their browser window size to fit their preferences. 

8. Aesthetic and Minimalist design

Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.

Virtual interfaces can offer a great deal of complexity, which makes it even more important to prioritize the essentials. For example, YouTube did a great job providing elements relevant to user&#;s primary goals &#; like viewing VR-friendly videos (360-degree) and search.

On the other hand, Pokerstars VR is often messy and distracting. During gameplay, when users open the menu to select game-relevant actions (like placing a bet or viewing settings) they are met with a cluttered, difficult-to-scan interface.

9. Help Users Recognize, Diagnose, and Recover from Errors

Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no error codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.

Clear communication and helpful suggestions are key to effective error messages. Unfortunately, Firefox Reality fails to provide constructive error messages when users have trouble using voice commands. Despite several attempts with a variety of queries, the voice capability never understood a word, even though the system provided visual feedback that it captured audio. The system failure was made worse by the unhelpful suggestion to &#;please try again.&#; It&#;s unclear whether it&#;s a local system issue, a Firefox Reality issue, or something else. This error message helps users recognize a problem but does little to help them diagnose and recover from it.

Pokerstars VR offers a training where users could familiarize themselves with some of the primary game interactions, one of which was a complex gesture, likely unfamiliar to most users. If users struggle multiple times with the interaction, they are directed to another (nongestural) method to accomplish the same result. This workflow helps users recognize and recover from the error but doesn&#;t do much to diagnose the problem or make people understand how the gesture should be performed.

10. Help and Documentation

It&#;s best if the system doesn&#;t need any additional explanation. However, it may be necessary to provide documentation to help users understand how to complete their tasks.

Virtual-reality experiences often contain a high volume of interactions, some of which are complicated or unfamiliar to users. Instances like these require thoughtful documentation that enables users to solve their problem and get back on track.

Immersed offers users accessible help and documentation. In fact, users have a variety of channels for support, including video tutorials, frequently asked questions, help documentation, and live support. The documentation pages (available in a web browser) were well organized and easy to scan, applying good information hierarchy and action-oriented phrases.

Conclusion

The user experience of virtual-reality applications can stunt its growth potential. Whether you think VR is overvalued or the future of technology, remember that VR has maintained its allure over a decade of hype. There is consumer interest and engineering capability, but this platform has a lot of room to grow in user experience. Despite being a different type of interface, standard usability heuristics still apply.

Despite it being a relatively nascent technology, the adoption of virtual reality across companies, organizations, and even governments worldwide has been widespread as its potential becomes clearer with every new development.

But what is virtual reality, what benefits does it offer, and what sectors are driving its growth? If you&#;re looking for answers to these questions and more, you&#;ve come to the right place.

In this article, you&#;ll learn ten virtual reality statistics you need to know in . From growth figures to virtual reality future predictions on usage, we&#;ve got you covered.

What Is VR?

Before we jump into the statistics, let&#;s very quickly cover what virtual reality is.

Virtual reality is pretty much as its name suggests. It is a digitally created, three-dimensional environment generated using advanced computer technology. It places users in a simulation and allows them to immerse themselves in a different world. 

This is done with the use of special devices such as headsets, goggles, gloves, and more, which allows users to explore and interact with these virtual worlds and their elements. 

Now let&#;s jump into how popular VR has become and some of the driving factors behind its growth.

1. Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) Market Size

To kick things off, let&#;s take a look at the sector&#;s market size.

The latest virtual reality statistics show that the global market size of AR and VR is forecast to hit $296.9 billion in (Statista, ). This is nearly ten times the $30.7 billion market size registered as recently as .

As it is, the figure for was already a whopping 91.2 percent year-over-year increase. This is set to more than double to $124.4 billion in , before skyrocketing in . The growing market size only goes to show just how popular the technology is expected to become over the next few years. 

Even though AR and VR devices still aren&#;t quite as in-demand as other electronics like smartphones or smartwatches, the growing market size is a clear indication of their potential. Many tech companies such as Microsoft, Intel, and Sony have invested large amounts of money into developing and advancing VR. 

As we&#;ll see in the next statistic, this growing popularity of VR is likely to continue at least for another few years.

2. Virtual Reality Growth

Going forward, all signs point to a surge in the virtual reality market.

Between and , the compound annual growth rate of the market is expected to come in at 18 percent (Grand View Research, ). In other words, in this seven-year period, the VR sector is expected to grow at an average of 18 percent every year. 

Analysts say that the oil and gas and manufacturing industries are expected to be the primary driving forces of this growth. In particular, the use of VR in training workers like mechanics, pilots, and technicians is set to increase. 

The incorporation of VR for commerce has been particularly popular among businesses and organizations. 

One example of this includes UK company ASOS adopting the technology in an effort to boost fashion sales amid the coronavirus pandemic. Using VR, the ecommerce company digitally fitted models with their new designs. This way, not only could their models comply with social distancing regulations and not have to go to the studio to try on these products, but ASOS could also successfully and creatively market their products to their customers in lockdown.

3. Increasing Demand For AR and VR Devices

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Given the potential and benefits of virtual reality technology, it should come as no surprise that the demand for AR and VR headsets is set to gain further traction in the near future.

As it stands, 14.94 million of these devices were shipped out in , a 54.2 percent increase from &#;s 9.69 million (IDC, ). The majority of these were VR devices, which represented 91 percent of the total number of VR and AR devices that were expected to be shipped out last year. 

That&#;s not all&#;this number is expected to increase further to 23.22 million in , and further soar to 32.76 million in . By , experts estimate that 43.87 million devices will be shipped worldwide. This will represent an impressive increase of more than seven-fold from to .

Analysts credit the AR and VR boom to the coronavirus pandemic, which sent the world into lockdown and forced offices to close and employees to work from home. As contact is cut off from the rest of the world, many companies and employees started to adopt AR and VR technology to remote work and attend events.

4. Virtual Reality Facts: Popularity Increase

The US market is no exception to this virtual reality growth sweeping across the globe. 

Nearly one in five (19 percent) of US consumers used VR in &#;a three percentage point increase from 16 percent in (AR Insider, ). Most users are also happy with the experience, with 55 percent of them saying they&#;re either extremely or moderately satisfied. 

Since content encourages repeat use, which is one of the biggest factors of success, this is good news for the VR market. 

Not all is fine and dandy, however. The barrier to VR use is still particularly troublesome to overcome. Consumers who do not use the tech say they&#;re simply not interested in giving it a try or discovering it, which will prove to be a challenge for VR developers.

5. Virtual Reality Usage in the US

As more and more people in the US purchase VR sets, usage can be expected to increase along with it.

The latest virtual reality statistics show that 70.8 million people in the US will use the technology at least once per month in (eMarketer, ).

This marks a six percent annual increase from &#;s 66.8 million, and an overall increase of 39.6 percent from . 

More and more US residents are also expected to start using VR more frequently. This number is expected to increase to 73.7 million in and by , experts estimate there will be 75.4 million VR users in the US. 

If the predictions hold true, this means that in the five-year period from to , the number of people using VR every month will have increased by a whopping 48.7 percent.

6. Virtual Reality: Future Predictions on Economy and Employment

Experts also expect virtual reality to bring about economic advantages. 

A recent analysis by leading consulting services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers purports that the tech is capable of injecting approximately $1.83 billion into the world economy by the end of this decade.

The report also predicts that VR will lead to a growing number of employment opportunities. 

Right now, there are fewer than half a million jobs worldwide that are impacted by VR and/or AR. This will all change this decade, with as many as 23 million jobs set to be using AR and VR in one way or another for training, meetings, and customer service purposes by (PwC, ).

Larger economies, including the US, UK, Germany, and China, are expected to be the most impacted.

7. Sectors Driving Virtual Reality Growth

This then begs the question: What are some of the key drivers behind such impressive growth?

According to a recent report, the gaming and entertainment sectors are expected to be the biggest drivers of VR growth worldwide (Global Data, ). 

With not much other than a headset needed to play a VR game, it makes it easy and convenient for gamers to just pop the device on, launch, and be taken to an entirely different world. The demand for VR games also surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, as consumers spent more time gaming.

Entertainment companies have also been eager to implement the technology. These include the use of VR holograms in theme park rides at the London Thorpe Park as well as the launch of Mario Kart VR by a video game development company. 

VR is also popular in other sectors like education. For instance, it is used to train doctors and aircraft pilots. Because of the nature of such jobs and the high costs of mistakes, the simulation permitted by virtual reality makes it a practical solution as it allows them to practice in a safe environment.

8. Virtual Reality Growth in the Gaming Market

Given the demand for VR in gaming, it should come as no surprise then that more and more gaming companies will be adopting the technology as demand for it grows.

In fact, the global virtual reality in the gaming market is forecast to grow rapidly over the next few years. 

According to the latest virtual reality statistics, by , its value is forecast to reach $92.31 billion, which marks a compound annual growth rate of 30.2 percent in the seven-year period between and (Grand View Research, ).

The biggest driver of this is expected to come from millennials, whose demand for tech-advanced games will push game developers to rely more on VR to meet rising standards.

9. VR Investments by Country

Though VR investments are expected from a multitude of countries worldwide, there are a select few that will be leading the pack.

Asian giant China is at the top of this list, with an expenditure of $5.8 billion on the technology in (Statista, ). This is a significant amount. In fact, its spending projection made up 30.8 percent of the total amount ($18.8 billion) that was spent on VR globally.

The US is the second-largest investor and spent $5.1 billion on virtual reality technology. Together, the US and China were responsible for 58 percent of the global VR investment in . 

This was followed by the entire Western Europe bloc with $3.3 billion and Japan with $1.8 billion.

10. Key Players in the Virtual Reality Market

Because VR is still a relatively new technology, there are only a handful of major players in the current market.

These key players include Meta, Sony, HTC, NVIDIA, Samsung, and a few others (Global Data, ).

A quick look at different review sites ranking the best VR headsets in shows that products from these brands feature heavily on the list. 

However, given the growing demand for virtual reality technology, you can expect big names to enter the playing field very soon. Leading tech company Apple, for example, already has a headset in the works, which they&#;re reportedly planning to launch sometime in . 

Conclusion

That&#;s it for the most important virtual reality statistics of . We hope you now have a better idea of the direction this technology is headed toward and its potential. 

Given its advancements over recent years, it&#;s probably safe to say that it&#;s only a matter of time before virtual reality takes over our lives.

Whether you&#;re looking to adopt the technology for your ecommerce store or be a leading seller of its devices, it&#;s always better to get a jump on it sooner rather than later so why not get

Summary: Virtual Reality Statistics

Here&#;s a summary of the Virtual Reality statistics you need to know in :

1. The market size of AR and VR is forecast to hit $296.9 billion in (Statista, ).
2. From to , the compound annual growth rate of the virtual reality market is 18 percent (Grand View Research, ).
3. 14.94 million units of AR and VR headsets were shipped to customers worldwide in (IDC, ).

4. Nearly one in five (19 percent) US consumers used VR in (AR Insider, ).

5. 70.8 million people in the US will use virtual reality technology at least once per month in (eMarketer, ).

6. By , 23 million jobs will be using AR and VR in one way or another (PwC, ).

7. The gaming and entertainment sectors are expected to be the biggest drivers of VR growth (Global Data, ).

8. The VR market size is forecast to reach $92.31 billion in (Grand View Research, ).

9. China and the US are the two leading investors in VR and spent $5.8 billion and $5.1 billion on the technology in , respectively (Statista, ).

10. The major players in the current VR market include Meta, Sony, HTC, NVIDIA, and Samsung (Global Data, ). 

Want to Learn More?

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