How can we create a fun and engaging
VR experience for kids?
OVERVIEW
Guwahati Planetarium wanted to introduce a VR Zone for children
The Government of Assam, in association with Embedded Interaction Lab, IIT Guwahati, wanted to create an immersive space exploration Virtual Reality experience for children that was out of this world. No pun intended.
As a Teaching Assistant under Prof. Keyur Sorathia at the EI Lab, I was over the moon about this opportunity. Enough with the space puns. Let's dive right into the deets!
STRATEGY
Turning Virtual Reality into… reality
Since the VR domain was relatively new to both parents and children, we wanted to emulate the environment to give visitors a glimpse of the experience. But first things first, VR Zone needed an identity.
CHALLENGE
Understanding stakeholder needs and goals
Challenge #1:
Most users were not aware of Virtual Reality domain
VR is an emerging technology and it was imperative to handhold our users and educate them it for the best experience.
Challenge #3:
Resource limitation
The planetarium was about 20km from the campus, we had to understand the real estate and materials available in few sessions to avoid multiple trips to the area.
Challenge #4:
Hands-free and low maintenance
Since this was a public place, the whole experience, particularly the VR headsets, had to be built in a way that could be reused over and over without much intervention of the planetarium staff.
Challenge #2:
Support for bilingual text
The official language in Guwahati is Assamese. We needed to accommodate both English and Assamese to make the experience accessible and draw more crowd.
MY ROLE
Branding and identity
Ticket design
Wall panel illustrations
IN COLLABORATION WITH
Embedded Interactions Lab, IIT Guwahati
Guwahati Planetarium, Assam
OUTCOME
Educational content with a dose of delight
Artifacts doubled up as memorabilia
Working with a Government body brings with it a number of challenges. There are protocols to be followed, limited budget to work with, sporadic availability of staff owing to other responsibilities, among others. Through it all, I had a blast working on my deliverables.
Keywords
Immersive (360 degree, panorama)
Futuristic
3D
Metaphors
Alternate reality
Opening doors to novelty
The identity went through various iterations before