Players testing my VR demo Life of Lon at the Silicon Valley VR Expo

Players testing my VR demo Life of Lon at the Silicon Valley VR Expo

Virtual Reality UX and Creative Direction

Virtual Reality is the Next Big Thing. The likes of Google, Facebook, Samsung, HTC/Valve, and many others are dumping money and resources into making VR successful. Forbes projects that VR/AR will be a $120b industry by 2020.

I've been working with VR technology since early 2015. Here's what I've done:

Thought Leadership

Giving a talk at Incontext Solutions on comfortable seated locomotion in VR

Giving a talk at Incontext Solutions on comfortable seated locomotion in VR

Participating in a panel at the first CHIVR meetup

Participating in a panel at the first CHIVR meetup

Me, Elina Vanyukhina, and August Wasilowski - the founders of CHIVR

Me, Elina Vanyukhina, and August Wasilowski - the founders of CHIVR

I'm very motivated to see VR as an industry succeed, and to bring good usability best practices to the forefront. I've spent a lot of time at meetups giving demos and talks on how to build good usable VR experiences.

Here are some of the articles I've written about VR user experience and design:

 

VR Product Direction

Giving an interview with some of the team at the Silicon Valley VR Expo

Giving an interview with some of the team at the Silicon Valley VR Expo

One of the key highlights of my work has been Block Interval, a studio I built in 2014 that pivoted to VR in June 2015. I've been fortunate to lead this team in creating a really strong VR demo for a game called Life of Lon. I've lead almost all aspects of the product- writing and ideation, game architecture, branding, art direction, music direction, testing, and project management. I can bring all of these things to a company that is looking to innovate in VR.

VR User Testing

Here I am conducting a VR user test at the first CHIVR meetup in August, 2016

Here I am conducting a VR user test at the first CHIVR meetup in August, 2016

I've conducted hundreds of user tests in VR at meetups, expos and in my own home. The testing process is absolutely critical when building games or applications for VR. It's not enough to simply conduct a test though- data must be gathered and analyzed- and the results must be synthesized and brought to the team so that the product can improve. I've conducted tests on both the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, with the XBOX controller as well as the Vive handheld controllers.

Here's What I Can Do For You

Is your company interested in VR/AR but doesn't know how to get started? Or are you getting started but don't have someone on staff who has done extensive UX work in VR? I've been building for VR since early 2015, and know all of the hardware/software considerations as well as the usability concerns related to ergonomics, locomotion, and experience design. I have a Rift and a Vive and can not only bring all the information to your doorstep, but give you lots of guidance on making your ideas a reality. Let's get the conversation started! Shoot me an email at danieldavidallen@gmail.com.