Hacker News Reader

Comment by wortelefant | Hacker News Reader

After we got used to multitask screen input in our lifes for years, VR is a huge bet that we somehow prefer single-focus-session in an environment controlled by someone else. No more checking messages in between, no more friendly distractions, and the VR companies have full control what we see during a session, including ads. This kind of hyperfocus is rare in most use cases, especially at work. I wonder how their UX reasearch justified the effort.

View on HN

The Quest line of headsets support multiple applications open and usable at once. So does every headset that uses a PC.

but it is still a controlled environment, the amount of context switching with a vr headset is limited to a) digital content / applications and b) only to the extend that the VR headset manufacturer allows.

Consider how meta originally marketed it in a business setting - would the "virtual office" application allow you to check your private messages in between? This can be built in of course, but currently it looks like an afterthought at best.

I talked to some trainers in a company about VR trainings (my previous company produced such a course). Some trainers were interested in VR because it "keeps trainees from looking at their damn phones"

it's true but this seems mostly a software limitation, especially with quest pro / 3 which are true mixed reality headsets they could have you seamlessly blend in and out from reality. Other devices could also be integrated, like a virtual, mirrored version of your phone you could seamlessly use while exploring a foreign planet in No Man's Sky, you could mirror mail, discord or browser windows into the virtual world or get notifications synced from your phone and desktop, take voice or video (in avatar form) calls though your phone etc.

To extremely varying degrees some of this is already somewhat possible, but at the end of the day the Quest is just a low to mid-range phone running a proprietary nailed-shut android OS that's barely hold together by duct-tape. So Meta can't do much with the foundation they built, just like a tablet device its just a toy you aren't supposed to do anything real with it. Some of that is also the reason why Carmack left [1].

[1] https://www.gamesindustry.biz/john-carmack-leaves-meta-criti...

Have you even used one? It has multitasking and notifications and all that. It's mostly just Android.

My previous company built VR learning apps (among other things). Immersive learning for trainees, but customers preferred implementations where trainees were prevented from doing anything else. That was not possible before

I really don't think whatever terrible experience your employer straps you into for training will have much bearing on the consumer UX of these headsets.

In fact it is Android.

VR covers your entire field of view, so not sure why you’d claim that it precludes multitasking, even if the current iterations aren’t yet geared toward that.

Lots of that field of view on most headsets is covered with a black abyss.

I think the companies pursuing VR see that as a momentary technical deficiency, not an inherent limitation of VR generally. So to characterize their efforts as a long-term “bet” against multitasking seems silly to me.

Multitasking as in, checking stuff on your phone in between, looking out of the window or at your cat etc

Reply on news.ycombinator.com