UX & VR

Michalewska

Designing for the brain not the headset

• our job is to observe before we build

• understand their motivations, fears and mental models

• design the experience in their language at their pace through reality

UX/UI designer

• develop the future and what it would look like

• designing for the brain/person

• working closely with developers and the company

user persona

• a fictional, realistic character created from research to represent a specific segment of a target audience

• Behaviourally designed user persona = what would motivate them

• allows designs to develop scale

• wont always be told what people want

creating user persona

1. professional goals

2. behavioural lense & cognitve motivators

3. behavioural pains

4. descion making patterns 

5. adaptability & learning behaviour 

6. upspoken wishes

7. influnce opporunites 

rule of belonging

• Don’t focus on technology → focus on people

• helping users forget the hardware and feel at home in VR world

• humanise the journey of learning VR through a story

• Immersion starts when discomfort ends

• When they forget the headset exists, thats when the design begins to work 

Cinderella’s story 

safe to fail learning

• allows for improved confidence

• create checkpoints & clear progress cues to prevent feeling stuck

• predict frustration points & provide gentle help

• allow mistakes

• safety isn’t absence of risk = presence of trust

emotional connection in VR

• leads to stronger memory & retention

• brain suspends disbelief when tasks are meaningful & achievable

• When learner act in a professional rhythm, their focus narrows

  • flow state

rule of alignment

• when analytics look great but emotion disagrees

• a learner could complete all tasks but not want to do it again due to emotional detachment

Data shows performance; psychology reveals experience

• a perfect run in metrics may feel lonely

• align analytics w/emotional truth

  • Pair data dashboard with qualitative debriefs or sentiment surveys

  • watch body language

  • use trust indicators

trust indicators

• voluntary re-engagement 

behavioural designs 

• anticipating behaviour before it happens 

• every prompt should add

• subtle design interventions influence better descions without persuasion 

Use of AI

• designed to guide & not control to support confidence

• goal is to make users feel as though they are talking with a subject matter expert

• trained on verified souces

VR is cognitively demanding

• learners must allocate attention, manage navigation, & interpret unfamiliar cues

• UX design is to reduce cognitive load

  • predictable simple interactions

Emotions affect presence

• if a learner feels uncertain,self-conscious, or overwhelmed, immersion breaks instantly.

Good UX

• Freeing the brain so it can learn

• not cognitively overloading

Belonging in VR

• psychological safety + familiarity with the environment

• discomfort prevents learning

• forgetting HMD exists allows for attentional absorption

Safe-to-fail VR

• mistakes are expected and supported, not punished

• Predictability reduces anxiety

  • consistent interactions → learners explore more

• error based learning strenghtens memory

• trust stabilises attention

Flow

• psychological state of focus where a person becomes fully immersed in a task & loses awareness of time

data ≠ feeling

• Metrics show performance

• Emotions reveal learning potential

• may have flow during complex tasks but may no have high presence

Key Conditions for Flow

• The learner knows exactly what to do

• Actions produce meaningful responses

• Not too easy, not too difficult

Why Flow Matters in VR

• Enhances learning by sustaining attention

• Reduces cognitive noise & supports presence

• Improves motivation, engagement, & memory retention

• Encourages exploration & problem-solving in immersive environments.

Behavioural design in VR

• Familiar patterns reduce cognitive barriers

• Emotional engagement improves encoding specificity → stronger memory

• Narrative + urgency + closure = deeper learning

• UX shapes learning by shaping emotion