The UX of VR

A curated list of resources to help you on your journey into the User Experience of Virtual Reality

Videos

VR Interface Design Pre-Visualisation Methods
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id86HeV-Vb8

Mike Alger

VR Interface Design Manifesto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3b8hZ5NV2E

Mike Alger

UI/UX design for WebVR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOaOYTOpwyM

Josh Carpenter

Designing for Virtual Reality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwh1LBzz3AU

Manuel Clément, Google I/O 2015

UX in VR: Designing For Virtual Reality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM1AnOqaE-w

Laura Cortes & Cyriele Piancastelli

Designing for Virtual Reality
http://www.uxforvirtualreality.com/my-designing-for-virtual-reality-lightning-talk/

Rebecca Torbochkin

Virtual Reality UX UI: A video gallery of interactions
https://gist.github.com/omgmog/d2371c861b2232ac2c445ee34af8edb6

Interaction Design in VR: Valve's Lessons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vQo0ApkAtI

Yasser Malaika

The Holodeck is here - Designing for Room-Scale VR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8mku0JvuLI

Alex Schwartz & Devin Reimer

Technical and Design Tips for VR/AR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2T0dwGYP0s

Jay Santos & Pete Moss

The Dawn of Mobile VR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqdexZJFHQE

John Carmack

Navigating New Worlds: Designing UI and UX in VR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=braV_c4M8oI

Kristoffer Brady & Richard Emms

Virtual Reality is a Medium: Creating Art with Oculus Touch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqrftCjQ4Q8

Lydia Choy & Brian Sharp

Designing Standing VR Experiences with Tracked Controllers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjc7AJwZ4DI

Alex Schwartz & Devin Reimer (Owlchemy Labs)

Designing for VR: Environments and Interactions
https://channel9.msdn.com/blogs/misslivirose/Designing-for-VR-Environments-and-Interactions

Liv Erickson, Just A/VR (MSDN)

Designing for VR: Input, Planning, and Testing
https://channel9.msdn.com/blogs/misslivirose/Designing-for-VR-Input-Planning-and-Testing

Liv Erickson, Just A/VR (MSDN)

Future VR Input & UX Solutions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILw_-rNNsxE

Stephen Tanguay

Building Better Worlds - Virtual Wearable Interfaces + More
https://www.youtube.com/watch?=kX5mMfhRjJo

David Holz (Leap Motion)

Documentation for Focal Point VR - An interaction design framework for Unity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzItw0i45Do

Albert Hwang

Building 3-Dimensional UI for VR
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1023652/Building-3-Dimensional-UI-for-VR

Riho Kroll

The Role of Space in VR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNs7C-kHdM4

Alex Chu

Don't just teleport - How to walk around something that is bigger than your tracked space
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At_Zac4Xezw

Daniel Sproll & Diego Montoya

VR Microtalks: Intersections of Design & Technology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtCuLd3wpEw

VRDC 2016

VR Design: Transitioning from a 2D to 3D Design Paradigm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjnHr_6WSqo

Alex Chu

Daydream Labs: Lessons Learned from VR Prototyping
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGUmTQgbiAY

Google I/O 2016

VR Design Process
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mcXAMDch7s

Google I/O 2016

Going VR: The Future of UI Technology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7plTOgTV-M

Jerome Lacote

Designing for Daydream
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00vzW2-PvvE

Google I/O 2016

Turn on, Tune in, Drop out: The Virtual is Real.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w4ofjGmQow

Howard Goldkrand

Let's Go Cyberspace - Virtual Reality UX
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFJYkfQdLmU

Timoni West

Locomotion in VR: Overview of different locomotion methods on HTC Vive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0YxzgQG2-E

Bumble

The current state of UX and VR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZQB1705inM

Thomas Gläser (CoSpaces)

Cognitive Psychology of Virtual Reality Basics, Problems and Tips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81f_QHRxQOs

Thomas Bedenk

HTC Vive and Oculus Rift Hardware Requirements Explained
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbY_GtaloaQ

Logical Increments

Shapeshifter: humuncular flexibility in virtual reality
https://vimeo.com/178716591

Harry Brenton

UX/UI Design for VR and Mixed Reality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxV-1pJ2hjk

John Howard (LOOOK Inc)

10 UX Challenges to Consider in VR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R-UN0vPWX8

Adrienne Hunter & Eva Hoerth

Flying through (virtual) reality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGiqq12mdUs

Patrik Künzler

Hand-Tracked Controls: Design and Implementation for Serious VR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYdEO-zIjlw

Matt Newport (OssoVR)

Integrating 2D UI with VR Environments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78F_HNWuqbw

Bradley Davis

VR Design Lessons from Multiplatform First Person Gaming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQcYhESXi0c

Rafael Brown

Wandering the Frontiers of Virtual Reality UX
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f2OgAyjDVU&list=PLA27jL5mOsuXdOup1ejEJ3h1L1cWTgGJr

Edward Moore (AMPED-UX)

Accessibility and VR
https://youtube.com/watch?v=J1SRkoR4iT0

Brian Van Buren, Tomorrow Today Labs

Designing Screen Interfaces for VR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES9jArHRFHQ

Google I/O '17

NN/g - The Metaverse and User Experience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rorrYIiUPsM

Jakob Nielsen

NN/g - Virtual Reality and User Experience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4GVG4C2BcE

Jakob Nielsen

Articles

Designing for Google Cardboard
https://www.google.com/design/spec-vr/designing-for-google-cardboard/

Google

The hierarchy of needs in virtual reality development
https://medium.com/@beaucronin/the-hierarchy-of-needs-in-virtual-reality-development-4333a4833acc

Beau Cronin

Speculations on neuro-motivated design for VR
https://medium.com/@beaucronin/speculations-on-neuro-motivated-design-for-vr-3f26685c5c40

Beau Cronin

Analyzing VR as a computing platform
https://medium.com/@beaucronin/analyzing-vr-as-a-computing-plaform-f4e53e25d078

Beau Cronin

From product design to Virtual Reality
https://medium.com/google-design/from-product-design-to-virtual-reality-be46fa793e9b

Jean-Marc Denis

The Fundamentals of User Experience in Virtual Reality
http://www.blockinterval.com/project-updates/2015/10/15/user-experience-in-virtual-reality

Daniel Allen

8 Things Every Educational Game Developer Needs to Know
http://blog.leapmotion.com/8-things-every-educational-game-developer-needs-know/

Alex Colgan, Leap Motion

6 Principals of Leap Motion Interaction Design
http://blog.leapmotion.com/6-principles-of-interaction-design/

Alex Colgan, Leap Motion

The Oculus Rift and User Experience
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2013/10/the-oculus-rift-and-user-experience.php

Peter Hornsby

UX & Virtual Reality - Designing for interfaces without Screens
http://www.uxness.in/2015/08/ux-virtual-reality.html

Prashanth Shanmugam

VRID: A Design Model and Methodology for Developing Virtual Reality Interfaces
http://www.cs.tufts.edu/~jacob/papers/vrst01.tanriverdi.pdf

Vilvan tanriverdi & Robert J.K. Jacob

Immersive Design - Learning to let go of the screen
https://medium.com/backchannel/immersive-design-76499204d5f6

Matt Sundstrom

Mobile VR Application Development: User Interface Guidelines
https://developer.oculus.com/documentation/mobilesdk/latest/concepts/mobile-ui-guidelines-intro/

Oculus

Oculus Best Practices for Creating Great VR Content
https://developer.oculus.com/documentation/intro-vr/latest/concepts/book-bp/

Oculus

VR Best Practice Guidelines
https://developer.leapmotion.com/vr-best-practices

Leap Motion

5 Lessons I learned from designing the VR UI of Beloola
https://medium.com/beloola-all-our-news-updates/5-lessons-i-learned-from-designing-the-vrui-of-beloola-754f16062c0b

Vincent Munoz

Video game user interface design: Diegesis theory
http://devmag.org.za/2011/02/02/video-game-user-interface-design-diegesis-theory/

Dave Russell

Designing VR Tools
http://blog.leapmotion.com/designing-vr-tools-good-bad-ugly/

Alex Colgan, Leap Motion

The Rise and Fall and Rise of Virtual Reality
http://www.theverge.com/a/virtual-reality

Verge

Virtual Reality User Research: Q & A
https://blinkux.com/blog/virtual-reality-user-research/

Blink UX

Will Virtual Reality Eat Your Brain (Or Save Humanity)?
http://www.realvirtualshow.com/blog/2015/10/28/will-virtual-reality-eat-your-brain-or-save-humanity

Malia Probst

Comfortable VR Movement in Dead Secret
http://robotinvader.com/blog/?p=493

Robot Invader

UX pointers for VR design
https://medium.com/@timoni/ux-pointers-for-vr-design-dd52b718e19

Timoni West

Going after a new VR Navigation System
https://medium.com/beloola-all-our-news-updates/going-after-a-new-vr-navigation-system-5439e0e860a2

Thomas Balouet

Making Great VR: Six Lessons Learned From I Expect You To Die
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JesseSchell/20150626/247113/

Jesse Schell

Design for Virtual Reality
http://blog.framerjs.com/posts/design-virtual-reality.html

Framer JS Blog

The Swayze Effect
https://storystudio.oculus.com/en-us/blog/the-swayze-effect/

Matt Burdette

Recenter the HMD Before Starting Your Application
https://www.twentymilliseconds.com/post/recentering-hmd-best-practices/

Kevin Burke

VR Interaction Design from the Ground Up
http://blog.leapmotion.com/build-button-workshop-vr-interaction-design-ground/

Alex Colgan, Leap Motion

Unlocking VRs True Potential with UX
https://medium.com/this-place/unlocking-vr-s-true-potential-with-ux-5c31d7367fe

Jim Yang

How to turn a 6 slides keynote into a WebVR experience
http://unboring.net/cases/deepLinking.html

Arturo Paracuellos

Ten Do's And Don'ts To Improve Comfort in VR
http://www.blockinterval.com/project-updates/2015/10/16/ten-ways-to-improve-comfort-in-vr

Daniel Allen

Interaction Considerations for Virtual and Augmented Reality
https://livierickson.com/blog/oreilly-design-2016-interaction-considerations-for-virtual-and-augmented-reality/

Liv Erickson

A Sense of Scale in VR
http://kholdstare.github.io/technical/2013/10/06/sense-of-scale-vr.html

Alexander Kondratskiy

Get started with VR: user experience design
http://www.vrinflux.com/the-basics-of-virtual-reality-ux/

Adrienne Hunter

Buttons in Virtual Reality - A UI/UX Design Approach
http://realityshift.io/blog/buttons-in-virtual-reality-a-ui-ux-design-approach

Reality Shift

A UX Designers Guide to Combat VR Sickness
http://realityshift.io/blog/a-ux-designers-guide-to-combat-vr-sickness

Reality Shift

You’re the center of the universe: A UX guide to designing virtual reality experiences
http://www.dtelepathy.com/blog/philosophy/ux-guide-designing-virtual-reality-experiences

Samantha Anderson

The Storyteller’s Guide to the Virtual Reality Audience
https://medium.com/stanford-d-school/the-storyteller-s-guide-to-the-virtual-reality-audience-19e92da57497

Katy Newton, Karin Soukup

Cause & Effect— VR’s Essential Interaction
https://medium.com/@WizardofAz/cause-effect-vr-s-essential-interaction-efff0471b470

Azad Balabanian

The UX of VR: How to design user experiences for this new medium
http://www.creativebloq.com/ux/the-user-experience-of-virtual-reality-31619635

Laura Cortes

The user is disabled: solving for physical limitations in VR
http://vrinflux.com/the-user-is-disabled-solving-for-physical-limitations-in-vr/

Adrienne Hunter

NewtonVR: Physics-based interaction on the Vive (Part 1)
http://vrinflux.com/newton-vr-physics-based-interaction-on-the-vive/

Nick Abel

Limbo - dolly shots for cinematic VR
http://uploadvr.com/introducing-limbo-a-vr-camera-movement-technique-by-the-developers-of-colosse/

Daniel Sproll

The Fidelity Contract in VR
http://zanytomato.tumblr.com/post/140725769440/the-fidelity-contract-in-vr

Kimberly Voll

Design Practices in Virtual Reality
https://medium.com/@jonathanravasz/design-practices-in-virtual-reality-f900f5935826

Jonathan Ravasz

Social VR Solutions: How to design Social VR so it isn’t awful
http://suzanimator.com/2016/05/10/social-vr-solutions/

Suzanne Leibrick

The Climb VR Menu
https://www.behance.net/gallery/36973013/The-Climb-VR-Menu

Riho Kroll

Virtual is Reality Again : Interface vs Interference Design 2014
https://medium.com/@LarryRosenthal/virtual-is-reality-again-interface-vs-interference-design-2014-6361e6f45b8c

Larry Rosenthal

UI / UX design patterns in virtual reality
http://realityshift.io/blog/ui-ux-design-patterns-in-virtual-reality

Reality Shift

AR / VR Teleportation Concepts
http://www.albert-hwang.com/blog/2016/5/ar-teleportation-concepts

Albert Hwang

Beyond Reality: First steps into the unknown
https://medium.com/kickpush-design/beyond-reality-first-steps-into-the-unknown-cbb19f039e51

Sam Applebee

Hand Tracked Controls in VR - The Basics
http://blog.mattnewport.com/hand-tracked-controls-in-vr-the-basics/

Matt Newport

Hand Tracked Controls in VR - Throwing
http://blog.mattnewport.com/hand-tracked-controls-in-vr-throwing/

Matt Newport

Design Insights for Virtual Reality UX
https://medium.com/@Punchcut/design-insights-for-virtual-reality-ux-7ae41a0c5a1a

Punchcut

Goodbye Metaphors, Hello World— Interface Design in Virtual Reality
https://medium.com/yvr/goodbye-metaphors-hello-world-interface-design-in-virtual-reality-d2462e52a029

Austin McCasland

Virtual Reality Development Tips
http://www.doolwind.com/blog/virtual-reality-development-tips/

Alistair Doulin

Exploring Methods for Conveying Object Weight in Virtual Reality
http://www.roadtovr.com/b-reel-simulating-object-weight-mass-virtual-reality-motion-controllers/

Ben Lang

Don’t teleport. Fly!: How to do it in VR without motion sickness
https://medium.com/yvr/dont-teleport-fly-b175a5c8fd73#.nx9b0gukm

Andre Le

Your brain on virtual reality: The psychology of virtual reality
http://formforthought.com/psychology-of-virtual-reality-vr-design/

Lauren Kelly

Being a superhero in VR makes you a better person
http://formforthought.com/psychology-positive-effects-of-virtual-reality-vr-behaviour/

Lauren Kelly

Reducing cognitive load in VR: 6 ways to improve your VR UX
https://medium.com/@namegoeshere/reducing-cognitive-load-in-vr-d922ef8c6876

Adrienne Hunter

Making Sense of Skyboxes in VR Design: How the physics of our real world translate to VR design practices.
https://medium.com/aol-alpha/making-sense-of-skyboxes-in-vr-design-3e9f8fe254d3

Tessa Chung

A multiplayer approach to collaborative decision-making
https://medium.com/yvr/a-multiplayer-approach-to-collaborative-decision-making-9b3e0747112a

Andre Le

Practical VR: A Design Cheat Sheet.
https://medium.com/@hitsmachines/practical-vr-ce80427e8e9d

Ryan Betts

The Concept of Presence in Virtual Reality
https://medium.com/@choongchingteo/the-concept-of-presence-in-virtual-reality-6d4332dc1a9c

Teo Choong Ching

How to Take Better 360 Photos
https://medium.com/virohq/how-to-take-better-360-photos-cde446994947

Robin Har

VR & Accessibility
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/IanHamilton/20161031/284491/VR__accessibility.php

Ian Hamilton

4 Things I learned Designing User Interfaces for VR at Disney.
https://medium.com/startup-grind/4-things-i-learned-designing-user-interfaces-for-vr-cc08cac9e7ec

James Hsu

Methods of Analyzing Your VR Experience
https://medium.com/@alless91/methods-of-analyzing-your-vr-experience-dbdfe0ea2edd

Ali Eslami

Designing VR for Mobile
https://medium.com/virohq/designing-vr-for-mobile-47bc665ab977

Robin Har

Realism, expectations, and the fidelity contract in VR design
https://medium.com/@namegoeshere/realism-expectations-and-the-fidelity-contract-in-vr-design-3782485bd054

Adrienne Hunter

Design a pleasant user experience inside the VR
https://blog.prototypr.io/design-a-pleasant-user-experience-inside-the-vr-a76320c69fdf

Sophie Riwaters

VR interfaces versus traditional interfaces
http://blog.ruisystem.net/virtual-reality/vr-interfaces-versus-traditional-interfaces/

Tuukka Takala

Considerations for VR developers
http://blog.ruisystem.net/virtual-reality/considerations-vr-developers-2016/

Tuukka Takala

Oculus: Hand Tracking - Interactions
https://developer.oculus.com/learn/hands-design-interactions/

Oculus

Slides

UX in VR: Designing For Virtual Reality
http://www.slideshare.net/LauraCortes9/talk-ux-uxinvrunit9

Laura Cortes & Cyriele Piancastelli

The rise of VR & AR era. Why this time is different?
http://www.slideshare.net/VRyzhonkov/the-rise-of-vr-ar-era-why-this-time-is-different

Vasily Ryzhonkov

Running User Tests for VR Games
http://www.slideshare.net/uxbri/steve-bromley-running-user-tests-for-vr-games

Steve Bromley

Lessons learned porting Team Fortress 2 to Virtual Reality
http://media.steampowered.com/apps/valve/2013/Team_Fortress_in_VR_GDC.pdf

Joe Ludwig

Virtual Reality Human Interface Guidelines
http://vrhig.com/

Brett Red

Virtual RealityDesign Principles with Google Cardboard
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B5HxukasM-KiSjFPaEJELWRxbkU

Swapnil Borkar

Sustainable UX in VR
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1OTXaz3RuV0HWgM754PRMUC7d2KYVHH974s5hnAt53wk

Dr. Pete Markiewicz

Designing the future of Augmented Reality
http://www.slideshare.net/carinangai/designing-the-future-of-augmented-reality

Carina Ngai

The Frontiers of Virtual & Augmented Reality User Experience
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TMbvwudDoWX-uy951HppecInbbyJwzAIGMu5w_l4Fj4/edit

Edward Moore (AMPED-UX)

More Ways to Make Your Users Sick – A talk about WebVR and UX Design
https://www.slideshare.net/geildanke/more-ways-to-make-your-users-sick-a-talk-about-webvr-and-ux-design

Michaela Lehr (GeilDanke)

Books

3D User Interfaces: Theory and Practice
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0201758679

Doug A. Bowman, Ernst Kruijff, Ivan Poupyrev Joseph J. LaViola

Learning Virtual Reality: Developing Immersive Experiences and Applications for Desktop, Web, and Mobile
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1491922834

Tony Parisi

Virtual Reality in Journalism
https://towcenter.gitbooks.io/virtual-reality-journalism/content/index.html

Raney Aronson-Rath, James Milward, Taylor Owen and Fergus Pitt

Oculus Rift in Action
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1617292192

Bradley Davis, Karen Bryla, Alex Benton

Computers as Theatre
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0321918622

Brenda Laurel

The VR Book: Human-Centered Design for Virtual Reality
http://www.morganclaypoolpublishers.com/catalog_Orig/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=844

Jason Jerald

VR UX: Learn VR UX, Storytelling & Design
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1533273022

Casey Fictum

Designing for Mixed Reality: Blending Data, AR, and the Physical World
http://www.oreilly.com/design/free/designing-for-mixed-reality.csp

Kharis O'Connell

VIRTUAL REALITY
http://vr.cs.uiuc.edu/

Steven M. LaValle

Other

VR Design Lab - Unity project
https://github.com/VRUX-CO/VRDesignLab

Open source VR design examples by VRUX.co

Focal Point VR - Unity Demo Scenes
http://www.albert-hwang.com/focal-point-vr

An Open-Source VR Interaction Framework for the HTC Vive and Unity by Albert Hwang

NewtonVR - Unity framework
http://www.newtonvr.com

A free, physics based, VR Interaction Framework for the HTC Vive and Unity by Tomorrow Today Labs

A-Frame - Building blocks for the virtual reality web
https://aframe.io/

ThreeJS/WebGL/WebVR Framework. Use markup to create VR experiences that work across desktop, iOS, Android, and the Oculus Rift.

WebVR Mockup boilerplate for VR Designers
https://medium.com/beloola-all-our-news-updates/web-mockups-for-vr-designers-cca2ba234b67#.ibl0gsegt

Vincent Munoz/Beloola

Tools of the Trade: Applications for AR/VR Design
http://designation.io/blog/tools-of-the-trade-applications-for-arvr-design/

Aaron Faucher

SteamVR Unity Toolkit
https://github.com/thestonefox/SteamVR_Unity_Toolkit

A collection of useful scripts and prefabs for building SteamVR titles in Unity 5.

Game accessibility guidelines
http://gameaccessibilityguidelines.com/

A straightforward reference for inclusive game design

3 Steps Towards Designing for AR/VR
http://blog.proto.io/3-steps-towards-designing-arvr/

Google VR Concepts: Spatial Audio
https://developers.google.com/vr/concepts/spatial-audio

VR Resources from Facebook
http://facebook.design/vr

Hover UI Kit
http://hovervr.com/

A pre-built 'interface module' provided with Hover UI by Zach Kinstner

The VR Glossary
http://www.vrglossary.org/

The ultimate resource for virtual reality terminology

Prototool
http://prototool.co/

Create, test & share VR design mockups

Microsoft: Fluent Design System
http://fluent.microsoft.com

An eloquent design system for a complex world. Now’s the time for bold, scalable, universal design.

Daydream Elements
https://developers.google.com/vr/elements/overview

A collection of tech demos that showcase principles and best practices for developing high-quality VR experiences

VRTK - Virtual Reality Toolkit
https://github.com/thestonefox/VRTK

VRTK is based on NewtonVR (which is listed), and is a very popular interaction toolkit for Unity.

UX Framework for VR Mobile (Spanish)
https://beeva-labs.github.io/ux-vr-framework/

Salvador Valle (BEEVA Labs)