Assignment 5 report

1 year ago by young1234

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KIT208 – Virtual and Mixed Reality Technology

AT5

Development of Interface Application

Daniel Thomson [575576], Jonathan Charleston [623759], Mingyang Yin [619211], Jes Lewincamp [497495], Connor Brooks [595866]

Introduction / Overview

What is Pet good?

Pet Good is the ultimate VR experience for aspiring pet owners, allowing users to learn to take care of their pet without its well-being in the balance. Dive into immersive simulations that teach you how to create a comfortable environment for birds, fish, dogs, cats,and even lizards ensuring a smooth transition into professional pet ownership. PetGood: Your guide to becoming a responsible pet parent without trial and error.

Design Revision

Bird Section:

Condensed tutorial text to allow for succinct and easy to follow instructions
Aesthetic changes, including the placement of the environment

Dog Section:

Control remapping to make more intuitive
Streamline some processes so less button clicks are required

Fish Section:

The fish becomes more real.
Now the fish can swim!
Wanna feed the fish? This function is now ready

Lizard Section:

Is more informative without outside help
Objects (and the lizard itself) are less likely to fall into the void.

In summary across the differing sections that constitute Pet Good, the design revisions were made to ensure realism, user experience, and error reduction. These revisions ensure pet good lives up to its goal of user education by applying a realistic task to an aesthetically pleasing and error free scene, pairing positive user experience with purpose.

Technical Development

Overview of the technical development

The app is a virtual reality app developed through unity and runs on Oculus headsets. In addition, in order to solve the problems raised, the app includes 3D models of birds, dogs, cats, fish and lizards, and each 3D model has corresponding interactive functions. These interactive features are implemented through Oculus built-in features and C# code. The app consists of six main functions. The following is an explanation of each function.

Key technical development aspects

Grabble function

As the name suggests, this function allows users to grab 3D models and is a function that comes with oculus. For example, users can grab apples or corn to feed birds or fish in the bird section or fish section.

Pokable function

The pokable function allows the user to interact with the 3D model after touching it to make the model more interesting. For example, the cube on the right side of the Fish tank in the Fish section allows the user to turn on the light inside of the Fish tank after touching it. In addition, through this function users can touch NPCS in the bird section and hide them.

Animation controller

Animation Controller is a controller used to manage and control animation, usually in conjunction with an Animator component, to animate a 3D model. For example, the motion of the Fish's tail in the Fish section is controlled by the Animation Controller.

Distance grab/grabbable functions

These functions determine what can and can’t be grabbed at a distance, like the grabble script, but with extra range.

Snap to Area function

The ‘snap to area’ function will make a predetermined object snap into place as soon as the object enters its trigger area, essentially making the object snap to wherever it ‘should’ be. This function is used in the Lizard training to make the tank look nicer once completed.

Win Condition function

This function's sole purpose is to tell the player that they have completed the tutorial, all it does is make congratulatory text unhide itself when it detects that all snap to area scripts have snapped their objects into position.

3D Content

Lizard Training

3D Object/Asset	Brief Description/Overview
	Heat lamp: Used as an essential part for caring for a lizard Made by Connor in blender Black road texture Black plastic texture
	Rock: Used as an essential part of keeping a lizard. Made by Connor in blender Dark cracked earth texture template Rock Texture
	Log / Den: Used as a lizard Den, an essential part of keeping a lizard. Simple Hollow Log - Download Free 3D model by Thunder (@thunderpwn) [38a0015] Log object
	Pool/Bowl Used as a water bowl in the lizard enclosure. Or as a pool. An object needed to keep a lizard happy and healthy. Made by Connor in Blender Seamless yellow wallpaper - iStock bowl texture
	Lizard: The Model used as the lizard in the Lizard training section. Lizard v1 Free 3D Model - .obj .stl - Free3D
	Pedestal: A background object used to hold the Lizard enclosure. Made by Connor in Blender Marble material
	Lizard Enclosure: A tank to keep the lizard, and other objects essential for keeping a lizard, in. Haystack 1 PBR Material Floor material Black road texture Black plastic texture Made in unity
	Room: The room in which the player learns how to take care of the lizard. It is very bland to make the player not care about it. Loop Pile Carpet — Architextures carpet texture Fine Wood planks texture – TexturePalace.com wood plank trim texture Seamless yellow wallpaper - iStock yellow wallpaper texture White roof texture roof texture

Bird Training

	Background Bird 1 Parrot: Decoration and to enforce upon the user that this is the bird training. https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/high-detailed-red-parrot-920cc524860e44fa874eed2462a1e247
	Background Bird 2 love bird: Decoration and to enforce upon the user that this is the bird training. https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/love-birds-parrot-e31e1c72cff140158b99172285b40056
	Interactive Bird Cartoon Sparrow: Target of users care, moves with animation and motion. https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/animals/quirky-series-free-animals-pack-178235
	Blocks: Decoration and to teach the user how to hold objects. Made in Unity
	Apples: Used in feeding interaction https://poly.pizza/m/ZjFo9SH6T0
	Audience: Used to simulate people as a bird stressor. https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/city-people-lite-260446
	Dialog box: Informs user how to play. Made in unity from base interaction explanation scenes in tutorial project.
	Room: The place in which the task takes place. Made in unity from base interaction explanation scenes in tutorial project.
	Cage: Holds the bird initially. https://poly.pizza/m/TAqDCvxcxd

Fish Training

	Fish Tank
	A fish
	Cube for the user to touch to show the learning model and make the fish tank more clear

Dog Training

https://poly.pizza/m/00f9MZIwA1V - Chess set | Jarlan Perez

https://poly.pizza/m/aoNcGMnNiG - Cable | Quaternius

https://poly.pizza/m/8kSHCCK66fa - Lego Moon Buggy | Ben Mitchell

https://poly.pizza/m/fBHV3AYiitX - Fireplace | Poly by Google

https://poly.pizza/m/8QtaCh2s3sm - Black Game Controller | Paul Spooner

https://poly.pizza/m/1PfSi8Y5J4u - Chocolate | Jeremy

https://poly.pizza/m/7JGnSIxgRVC - Grapes | Jarlan Perez

https://poly.pizza/m/5TDOcmDQlCV - Onions | Poly by Google

https://poly.pizza/m/1S8cp-PCpfJ - TIME HOTEL 2.15 | S. Paul Michael

https://poly.pizza/m/cAmECzmVE2_ - Watercolor Set | Don Carson

https://poly.pizza/m/2jFwyCzAAaP - Toy train | Jair Trejo

https://poly.pizza/m/vlVx279xut - Trashcan | Quaternius

https://poly.pizza/m/n88WAcjzTv - Window Small | Quaternius

https://poly.pizza/m/y4wdQpg767 - Shiba Inu | Quaternius

https://poly.pizza/bundle/Ultimate-Interior-Props-Pack-9KfkK2H0ve - Ultimate Interior Props Pack | Zsky

https://poly.pizza/bundle/Ultimate-Food-Pack-h3WC1gyRb4 - Ultimate Food Pack | Quaternius

Usability Testing

Design and Plan

As a team, a plan and procedure for testing was designed to be used across all scenes. Each scene in the project was separately tested. This allowed for flexibility in our testing as survey questions could be tweaked and tailored for that scene if needed. Furthermore, having 3 different individuals test for each software meant a larger pool of testers was used, making our testing more robust.

Methodology

Recruit 3 individuals for testing. (refer to below for desired requirements)
Individual plays the software
Individual fills out survey

Recruitment

For the testing process it was important to involve a diverse pool of individuals. This includes a diversity in previous VR experience and previous animal handling experience. Individuals with differing experiences interact with the software differently. Involving differing playstyles increases the chance for errors and areas of improvement to be exposed. On top of this, it was important to recruit individuals who the software is actually catered for: people with zero or little previous animal handling experience or aspiring pet owners.

Protocol of the testing

For each scene, testing was conducted in accordance with the above described methodology. On top of this, the following protocol was followed to help ensure controlled, accurate and thorough testing results.

Use VR Link or Screen record (to have documentation if bugs are discovered).
Use the same build for each tester.
Provide little to no verbal assistance to ensure that controls and objectives can be conveyed through the software alone.

Usability Testing Findings:

Bird:

Of the three users tested in this section, all successfully completed the content. This was measured by whether they successfully completed all of the tasks required to open the bird cage or not, as seen in the showcase video. Their feedback was then collated for analysis. Two of the three users gave the VR element of the experience a five out of five, with the other giving it a four out of five. This reflected the positive attitude they displayed while testing, with most users finding it novel and interesting to poke, touch and move 3D objects rather than simply watching a video on the same topic. The users selected had limited VR experience; only one of them had ever touched a VR headset prior to this experience. This led to their responses when asked, “Are the controls intuitive?” to be mixed, with a 3, a 4, and a 5 out of 5. If given more time to garner experience in a VR headset, this aspect of user feedback would have been largely mitigated. This is because the control orientation used in this experience is consistent with most games, and changing the controls to suit one person would overall accentuate this problem over rectifying it. Despite the control issues all users said it was educational, with the tasks acting as an engaging way to reinforce the desired knowledge.

In relation the difficulty of the tasks, all users found it relatively simple aligning with what was expected prior to initalising the test. This was reflected in the survey with all 3 people saying it was 3 or above in terms of ease of difficulty. In terms of specific struggles 1 user stated nothing with the other two responses relating to general VR experience and its accompanying controls. The users also found the length adequate across the board and all felt relatively more ready to take care of a pet. Overall the user testing successfully revealed that even users that have never utilised a VR headset can undergo the experience, supporting the success of this experience.

(see spread sheet results below for more info)

Fish:

In this part, three volunteers were found for testing and all of them completed the operation according to the instructions. Two of the volunteers rated the experience as a five and one as a four meaning that overall the fish content was interesting and engaging. However, when asked, "Are the controls intuitive?", most of the volunteers gave it a score of four. According to the comments, they could not easily understand each button because the buttons did not give good instructions. In addition, because the fish tank obscured part of the learning text, some volunteers thought that the fish teaching part did not provide a good learning aspect.

Although each user gave a variety of different suggestions, the question was asked how difficult it was to complete the task. Everyone thinks it's very simple which means that overall this part is very easy to control.

Dog Training

Forms response chart. Question title: Were the controls intuitive?. Number of responses: 3 responses.

The largest area for improvement identified by testers was the controls. Some users had difficulty with the controls to the point where the headset needed to be removed to refamiliarise the position of buttons. This completely destroys the flow and streamline nature of this software. It can be seen that these poor results can mostly be accredited to the users being new to VR. Despite this, remapping of the controls were put in place to help and make them more intuitive to a first time user. The problem seemed to stem from the amount of button presses required to complete the task and memorisation of their positioning. Also, users had difficulty identifying and finding the hand trigger input.

The laser process has now been streamlined. Pressing the index trigger fires a laser and the UI is automatically displayed on release. This removes a ‘difficult’ button press entirely.

Furthermore, distinguishing between pressing A and B on the right controller appeared to be difficult for users. To help with this, controls have been remapped so that pressing either button on the right controller now adds to list and either button on the left controller deletes from list.

UI toggle is now assigned to hand trigger as it is not necessary for completion of the software but more a nice to have.

Forms response chart. Question title: How well was this experience catered to VR. Number of responses: 3 responses.

The testing results seen above suggest that the software is making the most of the VR interface and that the experience is well catered to this format. Overall users felt more ready to own a pet. Even those with large amounts of previous animal handling experience reported that they learnt something through playing the software.

Lizard Training

Note: due to a lack of people immediately around the tester, only one person tested the experience, and took the survey. If I were to run testing again, I would get a larger group of different people with varying levels of technology experience, to get a true sample of what people think.

Forms response chart. Question title: How well was this experience catered to VR. Number of responses: 1 response.

According to all of the one person that tested the lizard training experience, it was very well catered to VR, and other forms of media wouldn’t give the training as well, or to the same extent, as actually seeing the lizard enclosure made with your own hands, despite the lack of interest in VR or it’s benefits for learning.

Forms response chart. Question title: Were the controls intuitive?. Number of responses: 1 response.

It should be noted that the testee has only used VR for brief periods before this, and does not fully understand how the controllers work, and for the first half of the testing period thought that the trigger was the grip button. This score for intuitive controls means that the controls were intuitive enough that they would not need changing, saying that the only controller inputs the player can give are the grip buttons, which are widely accepted as the best option for picking up objects.

Forms response chart. Question title: How educational was this software? How much did you learn?. Number of responses: 1 response.

The software is still at a basic level of education, it’s no secret that it needs more in terms of ways of teaching the player more about caring for lizards. But then again, caring for lizards is fairly simple, and this tutorial focuses on teaching them mainly on enclosure preparation, rather than feeding or helping with shedding.

Forms response chart. Question title: How difficult were the tasks to complete?. Number of responses: 1 response.

This is because the tasks are simple, it’s very easy to set up a lizard enclosure. However the next iteration would include some harder tasks, or more intricate versions of the current tasks, such as plugging in the heat lamp or filling the water bowl.

This was because of a bug that caused the props to fall through the floor. It seemed to happen a lot more often with the den for no reason I can tell, but it seems to be working a bit better now.

This is exactly what the training was aiming for, the experience is about 5 minutes long (currently), and teaches enough on the basics of lizard keeping that it hits a sweet spot between too long or too short.

Forms response chart. Question title: Do you feel more ready to own a pet?. Number of responses: 1 response.

This proves that the training can work for someone who otherwise may not have felt like they could own a pet lizard, even in its basic state.

This refers to a glitch or two out of my control, as far as I know the distance grabble script was adding force to the objects when it was not supposed to, or the grab range trigger became a regular collider.

This concludes the usability testing report for the Lizard section.

Results