Most immersive VR/XR experiences in public spaces and online, expect that audiences need only to put on a headset and start their excellent experience. However, it is now evident that many audiences are still unfamiliar with VR/XR. And even when they have tried VR, they still require experience guiding on how to move and interact within the experience, often called “onboarding” as well as “offboarding” to help them reintegrate back to reality, especially if the content of the experience is extremely emotional and affecting.
Many VR/XR artists and designers are now becoming aware of their responsibility to create a better “onboarding” audience experience for their immersive journeys, develop more accessible interactions with the medium, providing effective methods of guiding visitors from the real to the virtual and back (offboarding).
This talk provides insights from her own VR/haptic installation artworks INTER/her and Mammary Mountain over the last few years in working with audiences and how to care for first time VR audience members when encountering XR works.