Apple Vision Pro: Redefining the Future of UI/UX Design in Mixed Reality
TL;DR: There is a summary at the end!
So we all saw the new Apple Vision Pro release. This new technology could change the way we design user interfaces (UI). Apple Vision Pro opens up exciting possibilities for a new kind of experience called mixed reality. But what does this mean for the future of UI design? Let’s find out!
What’s similar to before?
The area that we are seeing in Apple Vision Pro is made of multiple screens. Each of these screens should act responsive, similar to the conventional practices of UI design. Additionally, the technology allows for flexible placement of screens, enabling adjustable dashboard designs or dynamic workspace UI designs, like Adobe product workspaces. Users should be able to freely move and resize elements, enhancing customization and personalization.
What’s different?
What’s different from before is the way that these elements all interact with each other and are in contact with our eyes and our space.
Perhaps we should design multiple premade workspace templates for different conditions.
For example meeting template should provide a minimum distraction that contains 1 screen for seeing people, 1 screen for seeing the slides that they are sharing, 1 screen for the chat within the meeting that supports raising hand gestures without having to use the hand emoji for it and 1 note screen that helps users write the meeting points.
For a better User Experience (UX) these templates should be adjustable and also users should be able to make their own templates and save them for future use.
Designing Inside or Outside Apple Vision Pro?
The decision of whether to design within the Apple Vision Pro environment or on traditional PCs is a topic of debate. I think in the near future hybrid approach is more likely. We will continue to design with our PCs and the familiar PC-based design tools will have preview add-ons for mixed-reality visualization. Design tools should incorporate different hand gestures for testing interactions, and a final check should be possible by connecting PCs to Apple Vision Pro. Exactly like what we are doing right now for mobile and smartwatch design.
Considerations for Mixed Reality UI/UX Design
Here are some UX/UI Design considerations that I believe we should consider in our designs for Mixed Reality.
1. Spatial Awareness
With Apple Vision Pro, it’s essential to design interfaces that understand the space we’re in. This means that virtual objects need to interact with real objects seamlessly. Therefore, factors such as depth perception, contrast, and font sizes in various lighting conditions and environments will become extremely important.
2. Eye and Hand Gesture Tracking
Attention is valuable, and understanding users’ gaze patterns through eye tracking and analyzing new heat maps can enhance design decisions. Additionally, hand gesture tracking will play a crucial role in interaction design. We need to run different studies to find out the new attention pattern heatmaps.
3. Personalize User Experience
With advancements in big data and AI, we should be able to use the data from each user and personalize the design as much as we can. Plus the ability to let users design the best experience for themselves based on their preferences.
4. Accessibility
This becomes more crucial in our designs and we should design for various conditions and user modes, such as work, driving, cooking, and talking with other people. Also, the transition between different accessibility modes should be seamless.
5. Collaborative Interfaces
Mixed reality enables new possibilities for collaboration. Users can interact with virtual objects and interfaces together. We will need to develop interfaces that facilitate real-time collaboration and shared experiences.
6. Glass Morphism
The UI trend of glass morphism will likely dominate in mixed reality. mixed reality. Help us not to feel completely disconnected from our environment. It will provide this illusion that we can see the other side and help us believe that we are in the real world!
The future sounds promising. Even if this product fails there will be the next one and next one and finally, the breakthrough that makes these devices ubiquitous for everyday use. Just like what happened with smartphones! We can’t even imagine a day without our phones today! So it’s better to be prepared from the beginning and pay attention to the UX and UI considerations!
Summary
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