Picture the scene. It’s a cold, grey afternoon at CareerFoundry HQ. Slowly but surely, one by one, the team stops what they’re doing and turns to look at Martin, the COO, who is completely oblivious to his new-found attention.
He looks more relaxed than he has in 3-and-half years, completely reclined in his chair, and lost in the Google Daydream—the virtual reality device powered by any VR-ready (i.e. uber-high-resolution) smartphone. We can only presume he’s exploring a virtual beach in the Bahamas.
It’s amazing that this kind of tech is now available as an affordable consumer product. Even so, many people haven’t experienced it and it hasn’t skyrocketed as many had hoped. Does this mean it’s not going to take off, or that we’ve simply got more time to prepare?
Last September—in 2016—Google opened up the Play Store for new third-party VR apps, and some companies have already ported their apps to VR; Google-owned YouTube of course being one of the notable ones, and the app I’m going to look at today as my “best practice” inspiration.
YouTube’s expert transition from 2D to VR is no surprise. YouTube has more than 1 billion users. Over 50% of the millions of hours of video watched each day is via mobile, according to their stats page. This makes the YouTube app one of the most successful apps to date.
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Showcase your legacy content in inspiring ways
While we normally think of VR apps working in a 3-dimensional space, sometimes it can be more effective to showcase content in a 2-dimensional space. In fact, Google’s research showsthat projected 2-dimensional content is the most efficient way to consume content in VR.
Try showcasing your 2-dimensional content, like text and images, in a well designed 3D space so that users feels like they’re experiencing the content in a new and novel way. If you’re displaying lots of different types of content like YouTube, make sure the VR content is clearly labeled and ranked higher than less interactive content.
“Projected 2D content is the most efficient way to consume content in VR.”
Virtual reality apps are still pretty new, and for content delivery services like YouTube, it will take years before the VR content catches up to the volume of content that exists as traditional videos.
YouTube plays standard videos on a flat screen in front of a 3D environment, and it looks beautiful! Everything from the shadow of the screen as it floats in the air to the flicker of the light coming off the screen helps to ground the video in real 3D space. They even give the user complete control over the intended viewing distance. Swiping up or down on the control surface moves the screen closer or further from your view, and it’s so blazingly responsive that I found myself playing with it constantly during playback.
After a few sessions with YouTube VR, it is hands down my favorite way to consume 2D videos as well as 360 videos.
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Source: Invision App