The UX of VR

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

The User Experience of Virtual Reality

Many thanks to all of the authors of the talks, articles, and guides referenced in the list. Without these people doing the hard thinking, Virtual Reality wouldn't be where it is today.

Curated & built with love by Max Glenister (@omgmog on Twitter)

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Videos

VR Interface Design Pre-Visualisation Methods
www.youtube.com

Mike Alger

VR Interface Design Manifesto
www.youtube.com

Mike Alger

UI/UX design for WebVR
www.youtube.com

Josh Carpenter

Designing for Virtual Reality
www.youtube.com

Manuel Clément, Google I/O 2015

UX in VR: Designing For Virtual Reality
www.youtube.com

Laura Cortes & Cyriele Piancastelli

Designing UI for VR
atomhawk.com

Dan Gilmore

Designing for Virtual Reality
www.uxforvirtualreality.com

Rebecca Torbochkin

Virtual Reality UX UI: A video gallery of interactions
gist.github.com

Interaction Design in VR: Valve's Lessons
www.youtube.com

Yasser Malaika

The Holodeck is here - Designing for Room-Scale VR
www.youtube.com

Alex Schwartz & Devin Reimer

Technical and Design Tips for VR/AR
www.youtube.com

Jay Santos & Pete Moss

The Dawn of Mobile VR
www.youtube.com

John Carmack

Navigating New Worlds: Designing UI and UX in VR
www.youtube.com

Kristoffer Brady & Richard Emms

Virtual Reality is a Medium: Creating Art with Oculus Touch
www.youtube.com

Lydia Choy & Brian Sharp

Designing Standing VR Experiences with Tracked Controllers
www.youtube.com

Alex Schwartz & Devin Reimer (Owlchemy Labs)

Designing for VR: Environments and Interactions
channel9.msdn.com

Liv Erickson, Just A/VR (MSDN)

Designing for VR: Input, Planning, and Testing
channel9.msdn.com

Liv Erickson, Just A/VR (MSDN)

Future VR Input & UX Solutions
www.youtube.com

Stephen Tanguay

Building Better Worlds - Virtual Wearable Interfaces + More
www.youtube.com

David Holz (Leap Motion)

Documentation for Focal Point VR - An interaction design framework for Unity
www.youtube.com

Albert Hwang

Building 3-Dimensional UI for VR
www.gdcvault.com

Riho Kroll

The Role of Space in VR
www.youtube.com

Alex Chu

Don't just teleport - How to walk around something that is bigger than your tracked space
www.youtube.com

Daniel Sproll & Diego Montoya

VR Microtalks: Intersections of Design & Technology
www.youtube.com

VRDC 2016

VR Design: Transitioning from a 2D to 3D Design Paradigm
www.youtube.com

Alex Chu

Daydream Labs: Lessons Learned from VR Prototyping
www.youtube.com

Google I/O 2016

VR Design Process
www.youtube.com

Google I/O 2016

Going VR: The Future of UI Technology
www.youtube.com

Jerome Lacote

Designing for Daydream
www.youtube.com

Google I/O 2016

Turn on, Tune in, Drop out: The Virtual is Real.
www.youtube.com

Howard Goldkrand

Let's Go Cyberspace - Virtual Reality UX
www.youtube.com

Timoni West

Locomotion in VR: Overview of different locomotion methods on HTC Vive
www.youtube.com

Bumble

The current state of UX and VR
www.youtube.com

Thomas Gläser (CoSpaces)

Cognitive Psychology of Virtual Reality Basics, Problems and Tips
www.youtube.com

Thomas Bedenk

HTC Vive and Oculus Rift Hardware Requirements Explained
www.youtube.com

Logical Increments

Shapeshifter: humuncular flexibility in virtual reality
vimeo.com

Harry Brenton

UX/UI Design for VR and Mixed Reality
www.youtube.com

John Howard (LOOOK Inc)

10 UX Challenges to Consider in VR
www.youtube.com

Adrienne Hunter & Eva Hoerth

New Frontiers of Immersive UX Design
www.bespokevr.com

Dr Harry Brenton

Flying through (virtual) reality
www.youtube.com

Patrik Künzler

Hand-Tracked Controls: Design and Implementation for Serious VR
www.youtube.com

Matt Newport (OssoVR)

Integrating 2D UI with VR Environments
www.youtube.com

Bradley Davis

VR Design Lessons from Multiplatform First Person Gaming
www.youtube.com

Rafael Brown

Wandering the Frontiers of Virtual Reality UX
www.youtube.com

Edward Moore (AMPED-UX)

Accessibility and VR
youtube.com

Brian Van Buren, Tomorrow Today Labs

Designing Screen Interfaces for VR
www.youtube.com

Google I/O '17

Articles

Designing for Google Cardboard
www.google.com

Google

Designing for Virtual Reality
ustwo.com

Casey Hopkins

The hierarchy of needs in virtual reality development
medium.com

Beau Cronin

Speculations on neuro-motivated design for VR
medium.com

Beau Cronin

Analyzing VR as a computing platform
medium.com

Beau Cronin

From product design to Virtual Reality
medium.com

Jean-Marc Denis

The Fundamentals of User Experience in Virtual Reality
www.blockinterval.com

Daniel Allen

8 Things Every Educational Game Developer Needs to Know
blog.leapmotion.com

Alex Colgan, Leap Motion

6 Principals of Leap Motion Interaction Design
blog.leapmotion.com

Alex Colgan, Leap Motion

The Oculus Rift and User Experience
www.uxmatters.com

Peter Hornsby

UX & Virtual Reality - Designing for interfaces without Screens
www.uxness.in

Prashanth Shanmugam

VRID: A Design Model and Methodology for Developing Virtual Reality Interfaces
www.cs.tufts.edu

Vilvan tanriverdi & Robert J.K. Jacob

Immersive Design - Learning to let go of the screen
medium.com

Matt Sundstrom

Mobile VR Application Development: User Interface Guidelines
developer.oculus.com

Oculus

Oculus Best Practices for Creating Great VR Content
developer.oculus.com

Oculus

Designing Intuitative Applications
developer.leapmotion.com

Leap Motion Blog

VR Best Practice Guidelines
developer.leapmotion.com

Leap Motion

Immersive Modelling UX
www.madebykph.com

Kristian P. Hansen

The UX of 360 Video
www.foolproof.co.uk

Matt Radbourne

5 Lessons I learned from designing the VR UI of Beloola
medium.com

Vincent Munoz

Video game user interface design: Diegesis theory
devmag.org.za

Dave Russell

Designing VR Tools
blog.leapmotion.com

Alex Colgan, Leap Motion

The Rise and Fall and Rise of Virtual Reality
www.theverge.com

Verge

Virtual Reality User Research: Q & A
blinkux.com

Blink UX

Some thoughts about designing for VR
www.gamasutra.com

Carleton DiLeo

Will Virtual Reality Eat Your Brain (Or Save Humanity)?
www.realvirtualshow.com

Malia Probst

Comfortable VR Movement in Dead Secret
robotinvader.com

Robot Invader

Storytelling in Virtual Reality: A Starter's Guide
www.vrdribble.com

VR Dribble

UX pointers for VR design
medium.com

Timoni West

Going after a new VR Navigation System
medium.com

Thomas Balouet

Making Great VR: Six Lessons Learned From I Expect You To Die
www.gamasutra.com

Jesse Schell

Design for Virtual Reality
blog.framerjs.com

Framer JS Blog

The Swayze Effect
storystudio.oculus.com

Matt Burdette

Recenter the HMD Before Starting Your Application
www.twentymilliseconds.com

Kevin Burke

VR Interaction Design from the Ground Up
blog.leapmotion.com

Alex Colgan, Leap Motion

The fifth wall. Things learned while working with the HTC Vive
stateoflux.net

Daryl Atkins

Unlocking VRs True Potential with UX
medium.com

Jim Yang

How to turn a 6 slides keynote into a WebVR experience
unboring.net

Arturo Paracuellos

Ten Do's And Don'ts To Improve Comfort in VR
www.blockinterval.com

Daniel Allen

Interaction Considerations for Virtual and Augmented Reality
livierickson.com

Liv Erickson

A Sense of Scale in VR
kholdstare.github.io

Alexander Kondratskiy

Get started with VR: user experience design
www.vrinflux.com

Adrienne Hunter

Buttons in Virtual Reality - A UI/UX Design Approach
realityshift.io

Reality Shift

A UX Designers Guide to Combat VR Sickness
realityshift.io

Reality Shift

You’re the center of the universe: A UX guide to designing virtual reality experiences
www.dtelepathy.com

Samantha Anderson

The Storyteller’s Guide to the Virtual Reality Audience
medium.com

Katy Newton, Karin Soukup

Cause & Effect— VR’s Essential Interaction
medium.com

Azad Balabanian

The UX of VR: How to design user experiences for this new medium
www.creativebloq.com

Laura Cortes

The user is disabled: solving for physical limitations in VR
vrinflux.com

Adrienne Hunter

NewtonVR: Physics-based interaction on the Vive (Part 1)
vrinflux.com

Nick Abel

Limbo - dolly shots for cinematic VR
uploadvr.com

Daniel Sproll

The Fidelity Contract in VR
zanytomato.tumblr.com

Kimberly Voll

Design Practices in Virtual Reality
medium.com

Jonathan Ravasz

Social VR Solutions: How to design Social VR so it isn’t awful
suzanimator.com

Suzanne Leibrick

The Climb VR Menu
www.behance.net

Riho Kroll

Virtual is Reality Again : Interface vs Interference Design 2014
medium.com

Larry Rosenthal

UI / UX design patterns in virtual reality
realityshift.io

Reality Shift

AR / VR Teleportation Concepts
www.albert-hwang.com

Albert Hwang

Beyond Reality: First steps into the unknown
medium.com

Sam Applebee

Hand Tracked Controls in VR - The Basics
blog.mattnewport.com

Matt Newport

Hand Tracked Controls in VR - Throwing
blog.mattnewport.com

Matt Newport

Design Insights for Virtual Reality UX
medium.com

Punchcut

Goodbye Metaphors, Hello World— Interface Design in Virtual Reality
medium.com

Austin McCasland

Motion, focus, control… Exploring the UX of Virtual Reality
xwerx.com

Flavien Plouzennec

Virtual Reality Development Tips
www.doolwind.com

Alistair Doulin

Exploring Methods for Conveying Object Weight in Virtual Reality
www.roadtovr.com

Ben Lang

Don’t teleport. Fly!: How to do it in VR without motion sickness
medium.com

Andre Le

Your brain on virtual reality: The psychology of virtual reality
formforthought.com

Lauren Kelly

Being a superhero in VR makes you a better person
formforthought.com

Lauren Kelly

Reducing cognitive load in VR: 6 ways to improve your VR UX
medium.com

Adrienne Hunter

Making Sense of Skyboxes in VR Design: How the physics of our real world translate to VR design practices.
medium.com

Tessa Chung

A multiplayer approach to collaborative decision-making
medium.com

Andre Le

Practical VR: A Design Cheat Sheet.
medium.com

Ryan Betts

The Concept of Presence in Virtual Reality
medium.com

Teo Choong Ching

How to Take Better 360 Photos
medium.com

Robin Har

VR & Accessibility
www.gamasutra.com

Ian Hamilton

4 Things I learned Designing User Interfaces for VR at Disney.
medium.com

James Hsu

Augmented Reality: A class of displays on the reality-virtuality continuum
web.cs.wpi.edu

Paul Milgram, Haruo Takemura, Akira Utsumi and Fumio Kishino

Methods of Analyzing Your VR Experience
medium.com

Ali Eslami

Designing VR for Mobile
medium.com

Robin Har

Realism, expectations, and the fidelity contract in VR design
medium.com

Adrienne Hunter

Design a pleasant user experience inside the VR
blog.prototypr.io

Sophie Riwaters

Тhe current state of the UX in VR (Part 1)
lensreality.com

Billy Vacheva

Тhe current state of the UX in VR (Part 2)
lensreality.com

Billy Vacheva

VR interfaces versus traditional interfaces
blog.ruisystem.net

Tuukka Takala

Considerations for VR developers
blog.ruisystem.net

Tuukka Takala

Slides

UX in VR: Designing For Virtual Reality
www.slideshare.net

Laura Cortes & Cyriele Piancastelli

The rise of VR & AR era. Why this time is different?
www.slideshare.net

Vasily Ryzhonkov

Running User Tests for VR Games
www.slideshare.net

Steve Bromley

Lessons learned porting Team Fortress 2 to Virtual Reality
media.steampowered.com

Joe Ludwig

Virtual Reality Human Interface Guidelines
vrhig.com

Brett Red

Virtual RealityDesign Principles with Google Cardboard
drive.google.com

Swapnil Borkar

Sustainable UX in VR
docs.google.com

Dr. Pete Markiewicz

Designing the future of Augmented Reality
www.slideshare.net

Carina Ngai

The Frontiers of Virtual & Augmented Reality User Experience
docs.google.com

Edward Moore (AMPED-UX)

More Ways to Make Your Users Sick – A talk about WebVR and UX Design
www.slideshare.net

Michaela Lehr (GeilDanke)

Books

3D User Interfaces: Theory and Practice
www.amazon.co.uk

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

Learning Virtual Reality: Developing Immersive Experiences and Applications for Desktop, Web, and Mobile
www.amazon.co.uk

Tony Parisi

Virtual Reality in Journalism
towcenter.gitbooks.io

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

Oculus Rift in Action
www.amazon.co.uk

Bradley Davis, Karen Bryla, Alex Benton

Computers as Theatre
www.amazon.co.uk

Brenda Laurel

The VR Book: Human-Centered Design for Virtual Reality
www.morganclaypoolpublishers.com

Jason Jerald

VR UX: Learn VR UX, Storytelling & Design
www.amazon.co.uk

Casey Fictum

Designing for Mixed Reality: Blending Data, AR, and the Physical World
www.oreilly.com

Kharis O'Connell

VIRTUAL REALITY
vr.cs.uiuc.edu

Steven M. LaValle

Other

VR Design Lab - Unity project
github.com

Open source VR design examples by VRUX.co

Focal Point VR - Unity Demo Scenes
www.albert-hwang.com

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

NewtonVR - Unity framework
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
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
medium.com

Vincent Munoz/Beloola

Tools of the Trade: Applications for AR/VR Design
designation.io

Aaron Faucher

SteamVR Unity Toolkit
github.com

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

Game accessibility guidelines
gameaccessibilityguidelines.com

A straightforward reference for inclusive game design

3 Steps Towards Designing for AR/VR
blog.proto.io

Google VR Concepts: Spatial Audio
developers.google.com

VR Resources from Facebook
facebook.design

Hover UI Kit
hovervr.com

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

The VR Glossary
www.vrglossary.org

The ultimate resource for virtual reality terminology

Prototool
prototool.co

Create, test & share VR design mockups

Microsoft: Fluent Design System
fluent.microsoft.com

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

Daydream Elements
developers.google.com

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

VRTK - Virtual Reality Toolkit
github.com

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

UX Framework for VR Mobile (Spanish)
beeva-labs.github.io

Salvador Valle (BEEVA Labs)