THE VANTAGE POINT
Technology, Media & Telecom
Key Areas of work
UX Research, Storyboarding user flow, Virtual Reality
Manager
Renganathan Padmanabhan
This project was a concept design in the VR space to create an immersive experience for sports fans during live sports events.
As a UX designer, I had to research on Virtual reality platform to be able to storyboard the user flow for this concept design.
Date
Nov 2017 (4 weeks)
Company
Deloitte Consulting LLP
OVERVIEW
Athlete wearable and tracking technology across all major sports leagues have improved by leaps and bounds in terms of player performance and movement analysis. Sports fans following every major sports league now have a plethora of options to choose from cable or OTT sources for in-stadium and virtual broadcasting.
BUT FAN INTERACTION STILL HAS A LONG WAY TO GO…
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There are no solutions that allow the fans to get in the player’s shoes to get an up, close and personal perspective of how they play in an actual field.
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The present structure of ticketing in stadiums allows only a section of the audience with a higher purchasing power to sit close to the playing field, with the lesser paying audience at a disadvantage with farther seats.
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Sports fans still have to settle for between watching the game in the stadium live to see their stars up close or watching them on live/recorded cable TV/Internet-driven OTT alternatives, without any of them offering a compelling option for fans and players to interact first-hand.
MAKE EACH SEAT THE BEST SEAT IN THE STADIUM
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Think of an omnidirectional camera placed on every player’s face/neck. It is streaming in real-time giving every viewer unprecedented sight of what the player is actually seeing or experiencing.
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The idea is to have 'an alternate reality/alternate view’ to what the viewer usually sees in a 2D spatial arrangement, with 360-degree views from a player’s perspective.
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In a fast-moving game like NHL or NFL, the viewer is actually able to visualize the sheer velocity of the game through the point of view of the player, not to mention the sheer grit and muscle, the player experiences at the hands of the opponent.
GETTING STARTED FOR VR EXPERIENCE
We had the idea in place of what VR solution we were looking for, I had to think about what kind of experience we wanted to design for. We’ve all grown so used to designing for rectangles because every viewing device is a rectangle. When you’re in immersive 360 space, your environment is boundless.
I had to research to understand the design process and principles for the VR experience. It seems designed for VR experience wasn't really different from designing for the web or mobile although there are few key aspects that need to be considered.
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It is important to identify the starting point.
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The kind of affordance that users would need to progress ahead.
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Do not provide detailed guidance, keep it minimal with slow and progressive visual ques to help the user.
STORYBOARDING FOR VR
To be able to conceptualize a VR solution, sketching out a storyboard gives you the perspective of the user. Hence I created sketches to map out various scenarios. This exercise helped in getting feedback and creating iterations of the concept design.
