Learn to design better virtual, augmented, and mixed reality spaces at XRDC!

As we gear up for XRDC in San Francisco next month, organizers want to quickly take a moment to talk in detail about some of the exciting and informative design-focused talks that you'll be able to check out at the event!

Helping creators and innovators design better and more effective experiences is one of the core missions of XRDC, and how you do that depends on what mediums you're working in. If you're a designer, it doesn't matter if you're working in augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, or all of the above: XRDC 2018 has something that meets your needs!

For example, the XRDC Innovation track talk "Designing for Unpredictable Experience Sizes in AR", presented by Google user experience designer Alesha Unpingco, promises to equip you with design techniques you can use when creating augmented reality content that reacts and adapts to different environment sizes

After all, every user's environment is unique, but what are the common trends seen in experience and space sizes? How do you design for various environmental constraints? How can knowledge of these constraints empower you to design for all users? Understanding the different environment sizes and how to design for them is one of the first steps creators can take when developing meaningful experiences everyone can enjoy; with that in mind, Unpingco will share insights from ARCore applications and break down observations and techniques creators can use for designing table-scale, room-scale, and world-scale experiences for unpredictable spaces!

Elsewhere on the same track of talks, Owlchemy Labs' Devin Reimer and Andrew Eiche will be delivering a forward-looking session on "The Holodeck is Here...Now What?: Advanced Interactions for Room-Scale VR."

It promises to be fascinating; since pioneering early standards for VR interaction, Owlchemy Labs has new insights about the latest best practices for room-scale VR.

Make time to attend, so you can learn from the team behind Job Simulator, Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality, and the upcoming Vacation Simulator as they cover several topics - including advanced interaction with objects and characters, zone-based teleportation, accessible design, and more - that anyone doing VR development can apply to their current and future projects!

Plus, the XRDC Innovation track will also play host to "Reasoning APIs: How to Translate AR Between Engineering and Design", a session presented by Unity perceptual engineer Andrew Maneri that's all about how the company has been researching a solution they call "reasoning APIs". These "reasoning APIs" are a new AR technique: equal parts coding, puzzle solving, and adventure-game-style ingredient substitution.

The Unity team has used it to turn weather into light, bridge the gap between devices, and more. Come hear about their experimentation in this area, and how to create your own! Attendees will learn how to create/use reasoning APIs to solve new problems in AR, and developers will gain knowledge to increase the scope and device range of their AR apps.

And finally, don't overlook "Adaptive Design in MR: UX Problems and Solutions" from Microsoft mixed reality lead Jada Williams. It's a talk that sets out to answer some pressing questions: How do you design the same app for both Hololens and VR? What do you do about the two different input systems? Do you stay consistent for design or for the platform? 

Drawing on her experience at Microsoft, Williams will compare how web and mobile have solved these problems with responsive/adaptive design. She will also cover how the Microsoft team thought about adaptive design in MR while designing for Microsoft Layout, a mixed reality app that allows space planners to see their ideas in context. Topics discussed in this session include UI consistency, menu patterns and input choices. Don't miss it!

XRDC takes place this October 29th and 30th in San Francisco at the Westin St. Francis Hotel. Now that registration is open, you'll want to look over XRDC passes and prices and register early to get the best deal.

For more information about XRDC, which is produced by organizers of the Game Developers Conference, check out the official XRDC website. You can also subscribe to regular XRDC updates via email, Twitter and Facebook.

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