The metaverse is a concept from science fiction that describes a single fully virtual 3d world that users can connect to via the internet and interact with each other and the virtual world around them.
The use of virtual reality and the metaverse changes completely how we will physically interact with these digital worlds. Anytime you watch someone with new technology the second the interaction becomes difficult to the user, feels like they are not in control and they will very quickly stop using it. Especially when the world looks and sounds so real that you are fully immersed the second you can’t do something you could in the real world the user is frustrated and annoyed, that is why it’s very important to study the User Experience inside this metaverse.
This User Experience inside the metaverse, has two major problems that make this experience not 100% immersive for the user.
- Optical hand tracking. The first is occlusion, the problem of the camera or sensor not always being able to see the entire hand. Regardless of where you put the sensors your hands move in such complicated ways that it is nearly impossible to always see every finger to track it.
- The other major problem of optical tracking is haptics. Using your hand to pick up an object, very quickly you will see the haptics issue. You will see your virtual hand pick up the object and your brain will expect to feel it. This won’t happen and your brain will immediately start to reject the virtual hand. In addition, you don’t have a good sense of did I pick up the object because you don’t have the haptic sensation that is sent to your brain informing you have picked up the object.
These are two of the main problems that the metaverse experiences, in relation with obtaining a fully immersive experience for the user. Once these two factors have technologically evolved, we could say we have a fully immersive metaverse experience.
In conclusion, a good user experience is going to determine the actual use the consumers are going to give to this product. Being able to create a fully immersive experience thanks to the user interface and experience, is the key to the creation of a fully functional and useful platform for consumers to use in their everyday life.