Secondary Mission
Shanghai Space Administration
Team
Simulation Lab of Tongji University
My Role
HCI Designer
Tool
Unity, C#, Blender
Duration
Sep, 2020 - Feb, 2021
My contribution
Led the Space Experience Project with VR and 4D seat from concept, UI/UX design to C# script implement.
Summary
The secondary mission is a space mission experience project in collaboration with Immersive Simulation Lab of Tongji University and Shanghai Space Administration. The aim is to make a strongly immersive space experience and to optimize the simulation of space driving on Earth from the perspective of HCI.
Final Display
Research
User Research
Our target users are young people. So we interviewed 9 young people aged 18-25 to understand their entertainment style and characteristics, and summarized the persona.
Key Problem
How do we attract the interest of young people who have played a lot of games and seen special effects films?
Discussion
Faced with this key problem, we had several rounds of discussion and came up with three design directions based on the relationship between the role of Experience and Action.
The effect of experience
Strong immersion
The strong immersion can bring a different experience from the game.
Optimize experience
Optimize the experience from HCI to make the experience smoother.
Multiple Endings
Multiple endings spark discussion and enhance the subsequent impact.
First round of prototype testing
In order to quickly get the problem in the interaction, we did the design and development of a low-fidelity prototype. I completed the code for the physical simulation of the movement of the ship and the connection to the 4D seat.
Spaceship physics simulation motion
Connect and control 4D seat
Iteration
Space misalignment
The biggest problem we encountered in the first round of user testing was the misalignment of space caused by the side tilt. The reason for this phenomenon is that there is no visible skyline in the space environment. Users cannot clearly match the angle of rotation with their vision, so they may misestimate their rotated position.
The biggest problem we encountered in the first round of user testing was the misalignment of space caused by the side tilt. The reason for this phenomenon is that there is no visible skyline in the space environment. Users cannot clearly match the angle of rotation with their vision, so they may misestimate their rotated position.
User perception of rotation
Solution
Rotation interaction
Second round of prototype testing
In order to quickly get the problem in the interaction, we did the design and development of a low-fidelity prototype. I completed the code for the physical simulation of the movement of the ship and the connection to the 4D seat.
Iteration
User Journey
In the second round of feedback, we found that users did not know what to do at the beginning of the experience. Through the user journey, we found that there was a serious information overload problem at the beginning of the experience, which prevented users from accessing task information smoothly.
Iteration
User Flow
For the information overload problem, we redesigned the user flow based on the density of information and the order of access. We divided the information into experiential information, visual information and task information (UI and dialogues). The corresponding flow allows users to receive each type of information step by step.
We added a new experience phase to allow users to receive experiential and visual information.
Iteration
User Interface
In the second round of feedback, we found that users did not know what to do at the beginning of the experience. Through the user journey, we found that there was a serious information overload problem at the beginning of the experience, which prevented users from accessing task information smoothly.
Coding
I completed the core functions such as ship movement, grabbing, and state machine.
Grabbing function
Radar Function
State machine