The Problem
As the popularity of VR grew and Oculus gained more users, so did the demand for social features in VR. It became difficult for Oculus users to coordinate activities in VR and play together since people do not walk around with their VR headsets ready to play at any time.
To alleviate this issue, Oculus introduced VOIP calling to allow users to call friends directly to coordinate meeting in VR. This saw some success in getting Oculus users to find each other while they were already in VR, it was ineffective for coordinating social activities outside of the platform.
The Goals
Increase co-presence in VR by creating more entry points into coordination tools and drive social engagement with the use of companion web and mobile experiences.
Create a sense of community in a virtual world with multi-player experiences in VR, allowing users to join friends or other Oculus members in their favorite apps.
The User Flow
Partnering with the Product Design Manager of the Social Coordination team at Oculus, I identified multiple possible entry points to joining another user in VR and created a high-level user flow to capture the key objectives from the product brief in the end-to-end experience.
Welcome to Oculus Parties
Users in a multi-player experience view a first-person perspective of their avatar interacting with other players in-game. A simple non, invasive UI allows users to manage their experience with other players; giving them control of volume, player settings, and suggested activities.
Join a Party
Oculus users can find a party to join in the Parties menu of the People tab. Party cards show the app, location, and people currently in the party. Click a party card to view more info and join!
Find a party to join in the Parties menu of the People tab. Party cards show the app, location, and people currently in the party. Click a party card to view more info and join!
View active party members before joining. Click "Join Party" to start playing instantly.
Join aN Open Party
Open Parties in Oculus are available to a user's friends and friends of friends who have set the privacy of their party to "Open to Join". Multiple parties can be available to one app, allowing users to choose a party to join, or play as a single-player.
Find a public party happening in your multi-player apps.
Join a public party, or continue to play as a single player.
Start a Party
Start a party with your Oculus friends in the Parties menu of the People tab. Just pick a destination and invite some friends to join!
To start a party with your Oculus friends, select an app to play, and invite friends to join you.
Turn on the "Open to Join" toggle to allow Oculus users outside your network to join you in VR and send friend requests while you play.
Invited friends are notified and party creator is waiting for others to join.
Leave Party
Before players leave a party, they can add party members as friends, or block and report party members for inappropriate behavior.
Get Invited to a Party
Content discovery often takes place off-Oculus but it's challenging to return to that content in VR. Using deep-links, users can create invites for VR content, such as destinations, events, and people, which can be shared with others on any platform. Links to VR content will be easily shareable anywhere on the web, enabling developers to market new destinations in their products and users to directly launch into an app in VR from a link shared on any platform.
Launch on one of your devices
Launch availability for each device varies depending on launch requirements and availability.
This component allows users to view VR devices registered to their Oculus account and the remote install / launch actions available to each of them.
Put on your headset
Users have 10 minutes before the link expires.
Developer Chats
Game developers can create chat threads on the Oculus mobile app that can be shared and joined by Oculus users, providing a direct communication channel to people who play their games. By creating more entry points to Oculus VR, game developers can expand their community outreach, announce updates to their community, and collect feedback from their players.
The integration of developer Chats with Oculus Parties allows users can stay informed of parties happening in their favorite apps, and coordinate their own parties without having to be in VR.
