VR Design Sprint

Day 1

Research and settling on a concept

After reading the brief and doing some initial research we realised that gross animal pictures with shocking messages did nothing, absolutely nada for changing peoples minds about the fur trade. We found that it made people think that the fur trade was a foreign problem and they couldn’t do anything to help stop the industry. What struck us as surprising was the lack of thoughtful educational campaigns, so we decided that this could be our niche. To create empathy for the animals through education.

Planning the sprint

We then wrote down all that we had to do, knowing that we wanted to have an interactive web campaign by the end of the week. The idea with the plan was that we wouldn’t use individual days as deadlines for each process, as flexibility was going to have to be an ally.

VR

It got revealed to us whilst talking to some of the students that they had an Oculus DK2 lying about the place. We grabbed on this opportunity, as what better way to create empathy with our users than virtual reality!

So we started testing the waters with what we could technically with this piece of kit over 5 days. Within an hour we had managed to set it up and started playing about with content. We tested typefaces and colour contrast, head movement and line length, anything we could think of. This was the first time either of us had tried an Oculus so it was very exciting.

So this was the end of day 1, we were happy with what we had achieved so far. We had found our niche: “changing peoples minds on the fur trade using virtual reality”.

Day 2

Planning the campaign

The brief specified that it had to be an online shareable campaign. To integrate our idea onto social media we concluded on using Facebook’s 360 videos which then linked to an Aframe based website which would serve as the hub of the campaign. Users would then be prompted to purchase a Google Cardboard to carry on their experience as it would unlock more content. Below is how we would imagine a user would interact with our campaign.

Story boarding

We then set about writing up quick story boards of our story. Building up the fox character and showcasing to the user its features and how it has adapted to survive in the wilderness. Then bringing the user back down to earth and bluntly explaining that there was nothing a fox could do to protect itself from the fur industry.

Copy

We wanted to create a story with our fox, and paint him as an amazing creature. But also make him vulnerable to his environment by using words like ‘crucial’ and ‘vital’, which we found helps to create empathy with the user. The copy was the backbone to the story we wanted to tell, changing peoples minds is one thing, but getting them to act is yet another challenge.

Day 3

User flow

Spending time working on the user flow meant that we really focused on the user experience. Through the iterations we added numerous skips as we were worried we were forcing the user down a path with no escape. In VR this sets a dangerous precedent.

Branding

Vital Reality was going to be our campaign slogan. Playing on the fact that this was still an important topic that is costing animals lives everyday and needs to be acted upon promptly. We decided to go for a friendly title font, opting for a slightly modified Mogra. As for the colour scheme, the pastel orange of the fox had a great contrast to the forest background whilst not being overly stark.

VR prototyping

We quickly realised that it would be almost impossible to get our ideas across effectively without a high fidelity prototype. Luckily, both me and Sophie are pretty keen Framer’ers and have been attending the London meetups. It took a large portion of the day, but by the end we had set up a basic VR landscape with our UI elements.

We have also written a supporting article on the technical aspects of prototyping with VR.

Day 4

Web design and prototyping

The website had to act as a hub for all the different social media elements. All the Facebook and Twitter campaigns were linked to this. As the main call to action was to purchase the Google Cardboard, we decided to add some fun to the experience and let the users choose their own ‘skin’ (ha…😒😒).