360 Sketching for VR Design

Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality have enabled new types of experiences that are viewable in all directions yet the tools to design these experiences haven’t been easy to use. The technologies haven’t been accessible to UX designers who are fluid and creative with a pen and paper or on a flat computer screen. Often experiences are sketched out on paper and then handed off to a modeler or developer who must then create the model before it can be visualized in an immersive experience like a head-mounted display. Using the technology behind 360 photos, I’ve created a new sketching tool that make it easy to create 360 sketches on a 2D surface while seeing what the end experience would look like through a 360 viewer as a 3D space. The tool is both useful for documenting the real world as the sketchers sees it, but it is also capable of capturing a virtual experience, as it can be imagined by the designer.