As a communication platform, VR offers an opportunity to deliver new, uniquely enriched experiences. The use of Virtual Reality (VR) in design brings many benefits throughout the product lifecycle, including sales. So, it is no surprise that HTC, Facebook, Google, and Samsung have invested so heavily in VR.
“When VR is well-executed it is possible to elicit an emotional response from a client, colleague or potential customer, beyond what can be experienced through traditional mediums.”
VR is the natural evolution of marrying the content already available to users and teams with the more accessible Head Mounted Display (HMD) technology available. This HMD technology allows users to experience, rather than view 3D data. Here at Majenta Solutions, we’ve seen first-hand how VR can help to close communication gaps and improve decision making between design departments and enhance communication with customers by improving exploration and validation of digital designs. We’ve successful demonstrated to businesses how the use or VR in design can increase sales and improve efficiencies.
By using HMDs, we are evolving from ‘Computer Generated Imagery’ to ‘Computer Generated Immersion’ in VR where the perception of a product, building or operation can be achieved in VR long before a physical model or prototype has been created.
An immersive VR experience
What are the business benefits of VR?
At Majenta Solutions, we have benchmarked the major hardware vendors; Oculus Rift, HTC VIVE, Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear in the office, and all offer varying levels of immersion at various price points. We have also looked at a lot of content and these are just a few of the feelings that are experienced using VR:
- Immersive – Users wearing a headset are completely immersed in the content, meaning fewer distractions and more focus and attention on message. When’s the last time you sat through an entire e-learning course at work, without checking your phone, email, the scores? Be honest.
- Impactful – The intensity of a VR experience is greater than traditional media, generating strong emotions in its users which are linked to real behaviour change.
- Memorable – Our brains are built to remember events linked to locations, this means that VR experiences have a longer trace in the audience’s memory.
- Innovative – With a high level of media and public interest in VR, early adopters can benefit from favourable media exposure.
- Connection – Through VR you can bring the showroom experience directly to a new audience, potentially from the comfort of their own living room.
- Collaboration – We know of customers who are forced to travel all over the world at great expense and time, to see and collaborate with design teams. In VR, you can have multiple people, from multiple locations, experiencing and reviewing the data together.
Is VR a perfect solution?
At Majenta Solutions we’ve seen some very good VR, which when delivered correctly helps OEMs connect with their customers. The Volvo Oculus VR Experience at the Paris Motor Show in 2014 was part of DigitasLBi’s marketing campaign. This is where the XC90 sold 7 cars a minute, as its peak, exclusively on the campaign website. It also generated a huge amount of positive press. Away from design, recently at the inaugural VR World event, we saw the power of VR for ‘empathy learning’. How do you help a teacher gain a deeper understanding of autism? Again showing the power of immersion to place you in the shoes of someone else, in this case, someone with Autism.
But, not all VR content is good content. Can you remember those video loops on roller coasters using Google Cardboard? This induced motion sickness during peoples ‘immersive’ experience, alienating present and future audiences.
When trying to convince your Director or Manager to investigate VR, it’s important that their first experience is a positive one or it could be sometime before they look into it again. Make their experience the best it can be. Our advice; don’t use the rollercoaster content.
HTC VIVE VR Headset
How to make VR work within your business?
We’re always happy to advise and share knowledge when you decide to take your first steps into VR. As we work so closely with OEMs, and by creating our own apps and R&D partnerships, we’ve got a thorough understanding and a good insight into the VR landscape. A lot of you will be interested in exploring VR, but before doing so we want our customer to really think about what they’re looking to achieve on the platform. There are a lot of companies offering VR services – 360 videos and CGI, but only a few that give thought to what kind of ROI you can gain through the adoption of VR. Our aim is to ensure adoption is smooth, and significantly improves processes that otherwise would cause bottlenecks encountered using traditional visualisation and prototyping methods. Our collective multidisciplinary design and industry knowledge aligns with the genuine requirements of our customers. This allows us to identify and understand issues and, in turn, helps you generate VR experiences that have a tangible impact and ROI across internal design reviews, marketing, product training and product launches.
Please take part in our survey or get in touch, we’re happy to answer your VR questions.