

Designers insert a range of digital elements such as graphics and GPS overlays which adjust to changes in the user’s environment (e.g., movement) in real time. In AR, users employ devices (e.g., smartphones) to find parts of the real world (e.g., a room) overlaid with computer-generated input. AR and VR-along with mixed reality (MR), where users interact with digital elements which are anchored to the real world-come under the umbrella term extended reality (XR). VR differs from augmented reality, where users remain anchored in the real world but experience computerized overlays. In virtual reality, you isolate the user from the real world and create presence in a virtual environment. Virtual Reality vs Augmented Reality vs Mixed Reality VR has since become progressively more affordable and sophisticated. After 1990, just after “Virtual Reality” became popularly known, VR entered the wider consumer world through video-games. With more sophisticated technology, they could tailor computerized VR experiences to the fields of military training, medicine and flight simulation. Then, designers focused on professionally geared applications in the 1970s and 1980s. The development of the first head-mounted display (HMD) followed in 1968. VR’s history began with the View-Master (a stereoscopic visual simulator) in 1939 and Morton Heilig’s 1950s’ Sensorama multi-experience theatre. You therefore want to isolate users as far as possible from the real world. The more your design reaches your users through-particularly-sight, hearing and touch, the more immersed they will be in virtual reality. In VR design, your goal is for users to experience an alternative existence through whichever senses your design can access. To create great VR experiences, it ’ s vital to design with a first-person perspective in mind.

Designers create VR experiences-e.g., virtual museums-transporting users to 3D environments where they freely move and interact to perform predetermined tasks and attain goals-e.g., learning. Virtual reality (VR) is the experience where users feel immersed in a simulated world, via hardware-e.g., headsets-and software.
