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Hi. I'm Seth Schneider, and this is VR UX. In this episode, we are looking into what it means to be immersed in a responsive world.

If VR users are truly immersed in the virtual world, they will expect to interact with the environment. Every action should be met with the appropriate responses orally, visually, and haptically. These are called environmental cues. When a user enters a new world in VR, their expectation will be that they can interact with everything they see. But if the user can only interact with certain things in the environment, it is important that they know up front. This avoids being disappointed by objects that look interactive but really aren't. Set expectations early, as the user will begin to form a mental model about interactivity from the beginning of their experience.

Currently, haptic feedback in VR lacks fidelity and specificity but still adds the feeling of immersion by making the experiences more tangible. You should have a haptic language that you can use to communicate with your users. For example, a quick, light vibration might represent that the loser is picking up an object, while a violent, pulsing vibration could represent a game player taking damage.

In addition to having the right environmental cues, it is also vital that your experience has no discernible lag. Mismatches or delays in timing are not only jarring but can lead to VR sickness and break down the user's physical comfort. For these reasons, it is critical to maintain high accuracy and zero-latency tracking of the user's head and hand movements.

Thank you for watching. Please comment below with topics you would like to see explored. And don't forget to like this video and subscribe to the Intel® Software YouTube* channel. And we will see you next week for more VR UX.