Through interviews with therapists and patients, we determined that the ideal at-home first time user experience for CogniviveVR would involve the user removing the headset from its box, powering it on, and donning it while in a seated position. This would allow users to begin using the device without the need for a home visit from a therapist. However, since the majority of its users were VR novices, it was important for CogniviveVR to have an onboarding experience that explained how CVR (and VR in general) works, in VR.
Here is a recording of the CogniviveVR first time user experience, customized for a clinical trial with one of our major healthcare partners.
The production version would have skipped the brief segment thanking them for their participation. I created this entire flow, from the script, to sequencing the animations, to the design of the different environments and characters. Most of the assets were temporary for the trial.
We went through several iterations of this introductory experience, and decided to create something that explained important safety details outside of the narrative of the game, then transitioned the user into the game experience for the remainder of the tutorial. Removing the safety details from the game narrative made them seem more important, and helped keep explanations clear and precise. The out-of-narrative portion of the tutorial also taught users the gaze cursor control, which was to be our only non-diagetic control. Once the user transitioned into the narrative portion of the experience, they were introduced to several characters, who would explain how certain aspects of the game worked (e.g. basic world building and how to get around). The majority of this initial flow was designed to be as on-rails as possible, with several key interaction points to keep the user engaged.