How do you make sure your VR design is consistent and coherent?

1 Define your design goals

Before you start designing your VR environment, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with it. What is the main theme, message, or emotion that you want to convey to your users? What is the intended audience, context, and platform for your VR experience? How do you want your users to interact with your VR environment and its elements? By defining your design goals, you can create a coherent vision for your VR experience and avoid confusion or inconsistency later on.

2 Establish your design language

Once you have your design goals, you need to establish your design language, which is the set of rules and conventions that define the look and feel of your VR environment. Your design language should reflect your design goals and create a consistent aesthetic and functional style for your VR experience. For example, you can choose a realistic or stylized approach, a bright or dark color palette, a simple or complex geometry, a smooth or rough texture, and so on. You can also use design elements such as icons, sounds, fonts, and animations to communicate information and feedback to your users in a consistent way.

3 Use spatial and temporal continuity

Another way to ensure consistency and coherence in your VR design is to use spatial and temporal continuity, which means that your VR environment maintains a logical and seamless relationship between its different parts and events. For example, you can use spatial continuity to create a realistic and immersive sense of scale, distance, and orientation for your users, by avoiding sudden changes or jumps in the size, position, or direction of your VR environment and its elements. You can also use temporal continuity to create a smooth and engaging flow of action and interaction for your users, by avoiding abrupt or inconsistent changes or interruptions in the timing, sequence, or duration of your VR environment and its events.

4 Test and iterate your design

Finally, the best way to make sure your VR design is consistent and coherent is to test and iterate your design with real users and feedback. Testing your design can help you identify and fix any issues or gaps that may affect the consistency and coherence of your VR experience, such as glitches, errors, bugs, or confusion. Iterating your design can help you refine and improve your design language, spatial and temporal continuity, and design goals, by incorporating user feedback and suggestions. By testing and iterating your design, you can ensure that your VR design meets your expectations and delivers a satisfying and meaningful VR experience for your users.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?