GoPro x VR
Design a multi-device platform,
dedicated to VR hosting and discovery
Back in 2016, GoPro launched GoPro VR, a hosting solution
for 360°video makers and a place for GoPro users
to discover awesome content.
Project
Design of the first GoPro product dedicated to VR
Role
UX/UI Designer
Company
GoPro
What I've done
◌ UX research
◌ UX design
◌ UI design
◌ Prototyping
◌ Integration support
Some challenges I loved
How to help our users to play with 360°video for the first time?
How to ensure our users will watch the most qualitative content during their journey?
How to create the best experience on every device?
Using 360° video
for the first time
One of the main missions of GoPro VR was to offer a first good experience 360° videos. Back in 2016, most of the people never heard about 360° videos.
With the engineering team, we worked days and nights in creating the best video player possible. Allowing users to move their phone to move in the video, to change video projections by pinching in and out. Also, after many user tests, I decided to design all the mobile app vertically, including the video player. It was the best way to directly show to the user this was not a "classic" video, and that feature has been key in the success of our UX.
⬅️
The onboarding at the first launch of the app, a crucial step in our user journey
Ensure a great content experience
When working on a media platform, featuring a lot of UGC, it's important to balance the space you give the creators community but ensure at the same time the best quality content is provided to the viewers.
At that time, our users were rather discovering 360°video for the first time or, for those who already tried, they had quite disappointing experiences due to the bad quality of most of the produced content.
I designed a journey based on two factors to ensure a successful experience.
At the top of the screen, on the homepage, and inside each category, I displayed the highlighted content, curated by our team.
Below, the rest of the videos were automatically sorted, showing the most viewed content by default.
Building on the opportunities of the different devices
While designing the entire interface of GoPro VR on the mobile app, tablet app, desktop, and VR headset, one of the most crucial aspects has been the actual video consumption experience.
Interaction design was crucial on that point. For instance on desktop, we had to make sure the user would be able to interact with the 360° with the mouse, meaning I had to lead many types of research in order to understand if the user would prefer to move the mouse in the direction they want to see, or the opposite direction, if they prefer to drag and drop, to point and click...
Also, I needed to make sure the UI of the player would come when the user needs it, but also disappear when the user enjoys the immersion offered by 360°.
