5 Reasons Why Users Flee from Difficult 3D Virtual Platforms

Let’s face the facts: users hate complexity in technologies. It’s almost required that any product or service should be very simple to use. Over two consecutive years at one virtual learning conference, the audience was asked to vote on what it believed to be the single biggest obstacle to the adoption and use of immersive 3D environments within their organization. Both years the number one response was the same — 3D environments are too difficult to learn and use.

We’ve compiled the top 5 ease of use problems regarding 3D immersive technologies, derived from analysis of video footage of novices attempting to use various interfaces without any instructions or previous training.

1. Interacting with Objects: A common mistake most platform designers make is in employing 2D interface design techniques rather than taking advantage of the 3D environment itself. Finding an icon on a tool bar that opens a menu of options may be your only choice when using a 2D product but 3D environments can provide for much more intuitive interactions. The best 3D interfaces are those that allow users to mouse click directly on the object, person or content with which they want to interact.

2. Navigation: Beginners to 3D environments tend to face difficulty with navigation. Non-gamers often struggle to walk, collide with things because they lose orientation by looking straight up. Many issues can be minimized by having attendees appear already in their seats. Additionally, flying, teleporting and using portals within a virtual world is also very impressive, but not the type of distractions needed during a presentation or meeting.

3. Gesturing: When a user selects an archetype his avatar will automatically display a gesture based on the meaning from one of dozens of appropriate gestures. In other words, the presenter does not have to select a particular gesture from a long list but rather he focuses on what he wants to communicate and the avatar gestures appropriately from that gesture group.

4. Set and Forget: Another best practice for all interface design is the concept of set-and-forget or autopilot. In less than a minute, users should be able to create a profile of how their avatar speaks, gestures, sits, and acts so they don’t have to click icons and buttons during meetings. Your avatar should look and act like you automatically.

5. Viewing Content: The best interface for viewing content involves two capabilities. First, users should be able to zoom their focus in on content without actually having to move their avatar closer to it. Second, is that very small content appears in an in-venue floating window, which forces the selected content to enlarge and float in reading position.

No matter how full featured and sophisticated your 3D platform is, a new user to a 3D virtual platform will be frustrated if it takes more than 5 minutes to learn the basics. If users don’t want to engage, the product won’t be benefited from or be utilized.

We’d like to hear your thoughts. Is ease of use that vital of a component in 3D immersive technology? Why or why not? What other factors play a role in what platform you choose to use?