Member-only story
How do we adapt to designing for the metaverse?
How do we approach designing experiences for something as complex and black-box as the metaverse?
The answer is, we need to go back to the basics of immersive design.
As a designer, you hear it wherever you go: the metaverse is a disruption. It poses a radical challenge for the design industry. It requires a completely different set of tools, methodologies, and conventions, yadda yadda yadda.
It’s true, though.
In the metaverse, the design challenges we face are plenty.
First, it’s no longer two-dimensional but three-, four- and five-dimensional. The space is borderless and the interaction potential can be truly mind-boggling.
Second, there are no more buttons and screens. We have to train users to figure out navigation on the go and ensure they are still comfortable while doing so.
Third, a different kind of interface means we have no choice but to enable interaction via voice, gaze tracking, body movement, gestures and touch, eventually developing the conventions around it to make it as accessible for users as possible.
Fourth, as the metaverse sort of immersiveness happens entirely in a virtual world, we need to figure out how to make the user’s real-life sensations relevant to the virtual scenario from the storytelling point of view.
Fifth, the user’s avatar is no longer a mere extension to facilitate virtual interactions, where the user just toggles and wiggles without experiencing the interaction first-hand. In the metaverse, the avatar is the user.
These challenges will indeed require designers, storytellers, engineers, brands, and even governments to come together and figure out the new conventions of creating in the metaverse.
While the complexity of the metaverse design is a given, it shouldn’t deter aspiring designers from entering this new promising field. On the contrary, I believe this is a very exciting time for a professional to become an early contributor and join in shaping the metaverse UX as we’ll know it.
