Reimagining a childhood space - in VR!

This design challenge tasked us to reimagine a space from our childhood and create it in VR using Rhino to 3D model, Blender for texture, and Mozilla Hubs and Mozilla Spoke for the actual VR space.

My Childhood Space

Thinking back to my childhood, I had many fun spaces to hang out and places that I loved. I decided on the forest that grew next to my house as I have many fond memories of going down there with my neighbor and exploring. To me this space was more than just some trees and a path, it was mysterious, a place to explore and find things, a place where magic could exist. I tried to take this into account when creating my space as I wanted it to reflect my childhood imagination.

Design Sprint

The design sprint is a plan which you create to step out the task and track your time management on the project.

Step 0 - Assumptions

Assumptions were made to help decide on specific features.

Step 1 - Precedents/ Moodboard

I gathered some precedents based on what I wanted to achieve based off my assumptions. My main goal was to create a mystical feeling environment in which you felt immersed. I gathered inspiration from some of my favourite movies as a child, Lord of the Rings and The Emperors New Groove as well as Studio Ghibli films I love now such as Princess Mononoko.

Moodboard

Step 1.5 - Risks

Step 1.5 identifies gaps in your knowledge, and other problems you may face during the design process. I allocated myself 2 hours to learn Mozilla Spoke but only needed about 30 minutes to learn the basics. Problems I encountered during the creation of the room I asked for help from my tutors and peers.

Step 2 - Ideation

I allocated myself 2 hours to ideate for the VR environment, however I only took about 10 minutes to do this, as I had a very clear image of what I wanted to be in the room. I also knew that I would have to 3D model objects and so was realistic before starting my ideations on what I was capable of creating and kept it very simple.

Step 3 - Choose an ideation

These were the concepts I ended up choosing. A clearing in the middle of the forest, as well as a path leading around it so that the user could be guided to walk around. I chose to have tall trees to make the forest seem unusually big and mushrooms as I feel that they add a magical presence to the space, a lot of children's books that I read used mushrooms as gateways to magical places or for fairies to sit on. I also chose a background image which had mountains on it to make the space seem larger than it actually is.

Step 4 - Build the Prototype

I created a basic tree in Rhino and then created different colours of these. I also created a bush using the top of the tree shapes. I created a ground plane and path as well as the mushrooms and and an arch. I added some textures to the ground plane, arch, and path. I also created a background and sky in Photoshop. I allocated myself 3 hours to create this room, however it took me around 5 hours.

Final Prototype

Check out my prototype in Mozilla Hubs here!

Step 5 - Commentary

I was able to contact some people I know and get some feedback on how they found the app prototype. I asked for feed back based on the main criteria that I had gathered from my assumptions:

1) Do you like the room? Colours? Objects?

2) Do you feel immersed in the space? What adds to the experience?

3) Is it easy to navigate around the room?

I allocated myself 2 hours to complete this, however it took around 1 hour to show my users the room and gather feedback.

Step 6 Reflection

The last step is to reflect upon this task and explain what I learned and would do different next time. These reflections are a seperate blog which you can find on my blog page.

Statement of Intent

My favourite space growing up was a forest that grew next to my house. I would go there with my neighbour, take a play tent, make mud masks and explore between the pines. As a child, my mind turned this into a forest of magic and mystery, which I have tried to capture and translate with my VR environment. The tall and colourful pines make the forest seem unusually big and glowing mushrooms add a mystical feel. The background panels make the forest seem never ending, and music which helps the user be immersed in my mysterious world.