VR & Research

SOLD OUT: Sorry we are sold out. We are hoping to have 2 of the talks on our YouTube channel later. Please follow @researchthing on Twitter for live updates on the night.

We have hosted an event about user research and VR before, but since the technology has moved on since 2017 and so many more of us are now working with it, we decided to run another event. Reflecting that VR does not have to be only about and for gaming, we found 3 engaging speakers that will talk about avatars, VR's life-changing potential and a VR project that involved Sir David Attenborough.

Below is more detail about the schedule, talks and speakers.

Schedule:

• 6:30pm: Doors open
• 6:30pm to 7:00pm: Networking
• 7:00pm to 8:30pm: Welcome, followed by Talks & Q&A
• 8:30pm to 9:00pm: Networking

***Talk descriptions below ***

1. Goggles & gloves: Immersive UX research in health and social care by Nicholas Babaian, Co-founder @ The Astonishing Visit (@TheAstonishingV)
   We'll share a tactical recruitment checklist for usability testing and research with participants and environments for which immersion was not designed but for whom it has life-changing potential: older and frailer people in hospitals, care homes and outpatient facilities.

2. Oculus Avatars: evaluating embodiment and social presence by Maria Murcia López from Facebook (@caaadillaaac)
   At Facebook we want to offer people the power to express their authentic selves in virtual reality. Under our current and future immersive hardware devices, we aim to ensure that people feel safe and comfortable with their avatar representations when meeting friends or strangers, and to encourage respectful and compelling social interactions. In this talk we will discuss how research has informed the evolution of our Oculus Avatars, including how we evaluate embodiment and social presence.

3. UX research for interactive VR experiences: Optimising Sky’s Hold the World VR application by Filip Healy / Threesixty Reality (@threesixtyUX) and Alex Street / Sky
   The talk shares some of the user research activities conducted to inform the design of Sky’s Hold the World VR experience featuring Sir David Attenborough for Oculus Rift. We’ll discuss the research objectives, the general approach to VR UX research at Sky and provide examples of some learnings around how people interact in VR.

***Speaker bios below ***

Nicholas Babaian / Co-founder at The Astonishing Visit (@TheAstonishingV)
Nick helps families bridge distances. As co-founder at The Astonishing Visit, he and the team empower people with less mobility to travel the world virtually, together with faraway family. Previously he helped create communication products at Skype, Yahoo!, TouchNote and Microsoft and co-founded Lifecake, a family sharing app acquired by Canon.

Maria Murcia López / Facebook (@caaadillaaac)
Maria is a user researcher and research scientist on the AR/VR team at Facebook. Prior to joining Facebook she completed a PhD on the effectiveness of training in immersive virtual environments at University College London. With a background in Multimedia Engineering, over the past years her interests have shifted from developing virtual reality experiences to working on novel research methods to evaluate people's responses to this technology. She currently focuses on studying embodiment, social presence and social interactions in virtual reality.

Filip Healy / Threesixty Reality (@threesixtyUX)
Filip has over 15 years worth of experience under his belt, planning, managing and executing user research and user centred design projects for some of the world’s leading digital and technology brands. Since 2016, Filip has focused on bringing the same level of user centred design practice to immersive tech and today runs Threesixty Reality, a UX consultancy specialising in immersive tech and a VR/AR research lab in London. Filip has a background in Psychology and human behaviour, and a M.Sc. in Human Computer Interaction.