Virtual reality and the future of design

Image source: VirtualRealityPop.com   

New realities abound in today’s world, and they cannot be escaped anytime soon. They include virtual reality (VR), which offers new opportunities as well as challenges for any well-meaning designer. VR design is on the rise, with major players such as Google, Apple, Oculus, and Sony jumping on board and making things happen.


Virtual reality is software designed to be immersive. It uses a massive headset to fill one’s entire field of view with an image, and its responsive nature enables participation in a virtual world. It’s used for virtual offices, events, products, and more, and with the technology people can preview designs scaled to real, life-size environments as well as depth.


VR experiences can be roughly segmented into three: active, semi-active, and passive. Active VR allows the viewer to interact with the environments, whether when killing the bad guys or solving puzzles. Semi-active is seen in a 360-degree video with hotspots where someone can choose to follow a character or unravel the next part of the experience, while passive VR pertains to a 360-degree video where the user can turn his head to watch the action at any compass point – and yet cannot influence what happens in front of him.

Image source: Reuters.com  

The future of VR design is limitless. Facebook sees its future as a “metaverse,” where instead of posting updates to each other, people actually walk along a virtual street and talk to each other. Microsoft is developing Holo Lens, while Magic Leap is showcasing a tiny projector shooting images directly onto one’s eyes.


VR enables designers a more realistic and detailed rendering of objects, allowing close-up encounters with virtual objects and the ability to move back from them. But how VR actually affects design remains to be seen, as the ever-changing technology dictates it’s always a little early to tell.


Daniel Volitich is a student at San Francisco College of the Arts taking up Animation. He is a pop culture geek who enjoys video games, animation, films, and comic books. Learn more about his passions on this page.