Interaction Design for VR Applications: Understanding Needs for University Curricula

TL;DR

This paper analyzes current university VR curricula, revealing a focus on technical skills over design thinking, and proposes enhancements emphasizing design principles, prototyping, and practical exercises to better prepare students for VR interaction design.

Contribution

It provides a content analysis of existing VR courses and industry insights, highlighting gaps and recommending curriculum improvements for VR interaction design education.

Findings

Current curricula focus on technical implementation over design thinking.

There is a lack of emphasis on prototyping and evaluation skills.

Recommendations include integrating design principles and practical exercises.

Abstract

As virtual reality (VR) is emerging in the tech sector, developers and designers are under pressure to create immersive experiences for their products. However, the current curricula from top institutions focus primarily on technical considerations for building VR applications, missing out on concerns and usability problems specific to VR interaction design. To better understand current needs, we examined the status quo of existing university pedagogies by carrying out a content analysis of undergraduate and graduate courses about VR and related areas offered in the major citadels of learning and conducting interviews with 7 industry experts. Our analysis reveals that the current teaching practices underemphasize design thinking, prototyping, and evaluation skills, while focusing on technical implementation. We recommend VR curricula should emphasize design principles and guidelines, offer training in prototyping and ideation, prioritize practical design exercises while providing industry insights, and encourage students to solve VR design problems beyond the classroom.