Digital Learners to Leaders Augmented/Virtual Reality Sprint Project
Role: UX Researcher
Research Methods: Survey, interviews & participant observation
Tools: Qualtrics, GSU iCollege, ReadyPlayerMe, Metahuman, Spatial io, Webex, Microsoft Teams
Duration: October - November 2022
Background
Digital Learners to Leaders is a yearly internship program that provides students with opportunities to learn critical thinking and problem-solving skills using technology to increase digital literacy and create pathways for students to pursue further studies and career paths in technology. The internship program allows students to connect with like-minded individuals and build a professional support network.
Goal
The goal of the Virtual reality sprint, which was kicked off on October 28th, was to introduce students to the virtual world and its available tools and to explore the possibilities of a stand-alone virtual reality course offered by the university.
User experience research was required for this project to examine and understand student experiences with virtual and augmented reality technologies and their capacities during the sprint. The research data would be used to develop a stand-alone virtual reality course at Georgia State University.
Roles & Responsibilities
I worked alongside Maya Wilson (Graduate UX Research Assistant) and Victoria Patterson ( Supervising Learning Experience Designer) on the User Experience support and research team for the DLL virtual reality sprint.
Responsibilities for the sprint included:
Participating in sprint design and research strategy meetings
Strategizing and implementing research methods
Developing surveys and interview questions
Transcribing and analyzing interviews
Synthesizing research results for reports and presentations
VR Sprint Activity
The virtual reality sprint served as an opportunity to introduce participants to virtual reality and give them an avenue to become comfortable within the virtual sphere by giving them the tools needed to navigate the virtual world. Additionally, the sprint allowed participants to think critically about the virtual world, its development, limitations, and capacities. The activities were structured in sections that took participants deeper and further into virtual reality as they continued while allowing participants to explore virtual tools' creative and expressive capabilities.
For the first activity, project coordinators asked participants to create a drawing using a pencil and paper that they felt was expressive of their selves and creativity, allowing them to think critically about themselves and the real-life world they inhabit.
For the second activity, participants had to create an avatar using the website ReadyPlayerMe. After they had completed this activity, participants were given time to reflect on the activity as a group.
For the third activity, participants used the website platform Metahuman Creator to create another avatar. At this point, participants were given time to reflect on the activity as a group considering the tool's new possibilities, limitations, and capacities.
For the fourth activity, participants had to plug their ReadyPlayerMe avatar into Spatial: a 3D platform within the metaverse and join other participants within the virtual space created by project coordinators.
Following the fourth activity, participants were encouraged to reflect on the activities by interacting with project coordinators and UX researchers. Participants shared their experiences and thought processes during the activities. Participants examined how their expectations or assumptions matched the outcomes of the activities. At the end of the sprint, participants were prompted to take the anonymous post-survey quiz we had developed to be able to gather more research data.
Challenge
Process
To understand the research problem, scope, and community, we conducted multiple meetings with project stakeholders to discuss the purpose and expectations for the project. Additionally, we conducted a preliminary participant observation before the sprint to structure our research within a human-centered framework.
Participating in the sprint’s activities uncovered critical areas, pain points, and significant limitations to the sprint and its goals. Our participation as researchers helped structure the research scope of the sprint into two broad research factors.
Research Factors
Virtual reality
Self-expression and self-representation
Limitations and capabilities
Methods
To ensure a thorough research process, we mapped out research strategies to cover each step of the sprint. These strategies included:
Surveys: using Qualtrics, we developed anonymous pre-sprint and post-sprint surveys to gain critical insights into participants' knowledge before the sprint and how the sprint may have or may not have influenced them and changed their perspectives and skills.
Participant Observation: we participated in the sprint to gain insights into how the sprint’s structure and tools worked together and to examine critical research factors or themes the sprint presents.
Naturalistic Observation: we observed participants during the sprint, listening to their conversations about the activities, listening to their feedback at the end of each activity, and taking notes along the way.
Interviews: we conducted post-sprint interviews with four participants to give us a deeper insight into their experiences, behaviors, and expectations.
Discovery
Synthesizing our research allowed us to see and draw out critical insights and themes apparent from the research process. The surveys and Interviews allowed us to examine and understand the user’s perspectives and experiences during the sprint as well as how they navigated the challenges and limitations of the virtual reality sprint and the tools they were given.
User Personas
Interviews allowed us to explore the participant's experiences and feedback at a deeper level within a human-centered framework driven by the determination to understand how the user shapes the tools and how the tools, in turn, shape the user's experiences. It was crucial to the sprint and our research goals that users could recognize and explore the limitations and unique capabilities of the virtual world and virtual reality tools.
Through the interviews conducted after the sprint, we generated key findings that provided significant insights into the participant’s experience during the sprint activities. These findings significantly contributed to our analysis and highlighted critical themes present during the sprint.
By synthesizing our research data, I drew out recommendations and areas of opportunity for project coordinators and stakeholders to address toward developing a stand-alone virtual reality course.
Conclusion
The UX research support conducted during this sprint produced significant research data that supplied project coordinators and university stakeholders with pivotal actionable insights, which were utilized to develop a new virtual reality course with the GSU Creative Media Industries Institute which will begin in the Spring semester of 2023.