NASA ASU
Psyche 16: Expedition VR
ROLE
UX/UI Designer
DURATION
Sept 2024 - Mar 2025
(7 months)
TOOLS
Figma
Blender
Unity
Slack
TEAM
David Branson
Armani Cardenas
Yeseul Lim
Dylan Peppard
Jonathan Vigil
Context
WHAT IS PSYCHE?
Asteroid 16 Psyche is an asteroid made largely of metal and speculated to have been the remains of a planet never formed. By studying this asteroid, we are offered a rare opportunity to deepen our understanding and knowledge of planetary formation. Our task was to create a virtual reality application to showcase existing data about other planetary bodies, including currently known data about Psyche.
With full creative reign over the type of application we wanted to create, we went straight into developing our problem statement:
How do we create an easy-to-use and engaging platform to educate audiences of all ages about the current NASA mission to Psyche?
Research & Ideation
STARTING THE DESIGN JOURNEY
We began our research process by conducting a competitive analysis of previous Psyche-related VR projects and space-related VR games. To connect with our target audience more to create an application suitable for the end goal—our project being presented in museums for educational purposes—we constructed proto-personas based on existing information of our audience and project details.
We then brainstormed and proposed many different application ideas, eventually narrowing down our project to creating an interactive space exploration game—where users can interact with various planetary bodies and scenes. This would target engagement for all ages, while still providing educational information, and being simple enough for users who have never used VR.
User Journey & Wireframes
CREATING THE FOUNDATION
Spearheading our design process as the team’s sole UI/UX designer, I used our research insights to lead my construction of user flows to solidify our application’s structure to optimize ease of use and engagement of material.
Partial user flow for navigating through "Event Mode"
With these flows created, I then mapped out an information architecture and started the sketching process.
Sketches
I often asked my team for feedback leading to my wireframe iterations, development of a space-themed branding style, and creation of our high-fidelity prototype, which I handed off to our engineers for development.
Mid-Fidelity
Pop-up and main menu iterations
Experimented with scene selection within main menu to reduce clicks
Branding
Branding styles and visual components designed to match space/futuristic ideas
High-Fidelity
Pop-up and main menu high fidelity iterations
Added styling and kept scene selection on main menu due to positive feedback
User Testing
WHAT DO PEOPLE THINK?
We received the opportunity to showcase our project at UCI’s annual Homecoming Celebration, where many different people—ranging from children to even our school’s dean—were able to demo and playtest our product.
We collected the feedback from these players—along with our own playtesters—to solidify our final iterations of the game.
Features & Gameplay
INTRODUCING…
PSYCHE 16: EXPEDITION VR
Feature #1
RAYCASTS AND PANELS
The main feature of our game was the user’s capability to use the controller’s laser beam pointer—or raycast—to select objects and interact with them, revealing panels of educational material about real artifacts on planetary bodies.
Raycast implementation
Feature #2
SCAVENGER HUNT
In order to move onto the next scene, a user needs to find every interactable object. This creates a gamified aspect to keep players engaged to work towards a goal. We received player feedback of enjoying the “scavenger hunt” feel, allowing us to validate this solution to maintaining user engagement.
Scene completion gameplay
We then wrapped up our project and handed it off to our project sponsor while preparing for the 5th annual ICS Project Expo.
Outcome
AWARDS & LEARNING
Our team was awarded the 3rd place Informatics prize at UCI's annual ICS Project Expo out of 90+ teams. With this being the first time one of my designs was fully implemented, I felt very fulfilled upon completing this project. I loved being able to see the iterations of my designs being implemented and was even more rewarded seeing everyone test out our demo while voicing their love for the design and look of the application.
Reflection
TAKING INITIATIVE & ADAPTING
Takeaway #1: Becoming a Self-Starter
Takeaway #2: Adaptability with Feedback
I also needed to be adaptable and work quickly when it came to user feedback. With input on how the controls were initially hard to understand, I immediately drafted solutions and discussed with my team to come to a consensus of how tutorial panels would bridge the initial VR learning gap.
It was a pleasure to work on this project with my team and I would also like to extend a thank you to our professor, Darren Dannenberg, for his guidance and our sponsor Cassie Bowman for her time and resources.