UX Research Lead at Meta

1+ Year UX Researcher Role at Meta Reality Labs

In November of 2021, I was promoted from a UXR Assistant to a UX Researcher III at Meta. With this promotion, I became the lead UXR for a virtual reality controller. This led to a large change in my day-to-day responsibilities, which included:

• Represented UXR as a stakeholder for an upcoming VR controller product.
• Met weekly with all product stakeholder groups to understand their current/upcoming deliverables and possibilities for running research. I also updated other stakeholders on my planned/ongoing research studies and research results. 
• Planned, moderated, and reported out all hardware specific UXR for the VR controller.
• Presented findings and design recommendations, including HW/SW mockups.
• Collaborate heavily with UXRs for the main headset and device accessories to understand any major changes in their programs product development cycle and collaborate on research studies.
  • Often times, this included helping plan, moderate, analyze, or present research on accompanying products.

With these additional responsibilities, I gained new skills and a better understanding on how to be an effective UX Researcher. These skill include:

• How to champion making the right decisions from the UXR perspective within a field of constraints by other stakeholder groups.
  
• How to align the UX research roadmap with the product development cycle to UXR testing happened as soon as controller prototypes/features were available.
  • This resulted in UX research was conducted efficiently so that reporting can be done with enough time for actionable changes to impact the next prototype build.
• How to collaborate with various different stakeholder groups to anticipate research needs as they come up, test new features as they become available, and understand conflicts between various features/functionalities.
  • Often, I had to ensure that features/functions from different stakeholders teams would work together when needed in a larger scale research study. I would regularly check in and ensure timelines were being met and creating contingency plans to ensure the lack of one feature/function did not prevent the testing of another.

Product Space - VR Controllers

VR headsets are incredible in their ability to make you feel as if you are truly somewhere else entirely, but VR controllers are integral for allowing you to interact with that new space. VR controllers are similar to other controller products in many ways, but have some major differences to enable the full immersive experience that users expect. VR controllers have changed drastically in form and function over time and will continue to change, but there are core subsystems that will remain important for all future VR controllers.

I created a breakdown of the controller subsystems to help myself and others understand the most important subsystems and see how changes in hardware impact multiple subsystems. Like anything, there is typically a tradeoff between one or multiple subsystems with changes and decisions need to be weighed accordingly.

Mock up of VR Controller Subsystems with the Meta Quest 2 controller (Left) and the Meta Quest Pro controller (Right)

Fundamental Subsystems

Precision Tracking

• Controller tracking allows users to directly and indirectly interact with the surrounding VR environment in a realistic way. Whether it's emulating your hands or something more fantastical, a disconnect in what you see vs where you know your hands are in real life is noticeable immediately.
• Tracking is such an important part of VR controllers that it completely dominates the form factor and functions of VR controllers compared to other subsystems. The large ring at the top of the Quest 2 controller is what enables tracking via camera's on the headset. To remove the ring and continue to improve tracking fidelity, the Quest Pro controller added cameras and onboard computational power to have the most precise standalone tracking of any current offering for VR controllers.

Tracking of the virtual controllers vs. real life

Capsense on Quest 2 controllers in VR

Reliable, Repeatable Inputs

• It may seem obvious for a controller, but ensuring that all inputs are reliable and repeatable is critical. The buttons and triggers must be easily accessible by all hand sizes and not cause discomfort over time. The materials and feel of the buttons and triggers can also have a big impact on the overall input experience.
• Aside from conventional controller button/trigger inputs, VR controllers have additional inputs that are not obvious, but still need a high level of care when designing.
  • The Quest 2 controller has capsense on each traditional button/trigger and on the face of the controller. This lets the controller know which inputs you are resting on and allows for many new interactions in VR. For example, taking your finger off the trigger is often represented as a pointing finger in VR, allowing for finer control hand actions while still using controller buttons.
  • The Quest Pro utilizes all the previous capsense inputs, as well as an entirely novel input method called "Precision Pinch". This allows users to press harder onto the thumbrest and have specific amounts of pressure registered, allowing for even more fine control and immersion for specific actions in VR. 

Ergonomic Comfort

• Egonomics are vital for the VR controller experience because of the addition of controller tracking. In many cases, a user will be holding up the controller constantly throughout a VR experience, so weight and balance in hand become higher priorities compared to conventional controllers.
• The transition between Quest 2 to Quest Pro controller does not appear drastic from an ergonomic perspective. However, there are very big changes in weight and balance in hand between the two controllers that needed to be accounted for.
  • Without the tracking ring, the balance in hand for the Quest Pro controller was completely reworked. The Quest Pro also has a much higher weight due to the new rechargeable batteries, onboard computer, and cameras for SLAM tracking.
  • The Quest Pro also introduces a subtle change in the thumbrest pad to improve overall ergonomic comfort and enable more discrete capacitive touch and the additional "Precision Pinch" input method.

Quest 2 Controller compared to Quest Pro

Underlying Subsystems

A quick overview of some of the new features enabled by the Haptics Studio

Haptic Vibrations

• • Haptic vibrations, alongside spatial audio, take on a critical role in aiding for a complete immersive experience in VR. The vibrations often allow you to understand how you have interacted with another object in VR before you do through visual/audio context.
  • The mechanisms for haptic vibrations changed drastically between Quest 2 and Quest Pro, developing from a one dimensional buzz vibration to a much deeper and experience dependent vibration. The new haptics can be programmed to vibrate throughout a wide range of frequencies for further immersion. Additional software also enables developers to tailor haptic experiences to follow alongside music or environmental factors.
    • The haptics also needed to be adjusted to fit the new weight profile of the Pro controller without feeling under/overpowered.

Safety and Durability

• The Nintendo Wii cemented the importance of safety and durability when designing controllers that users move dynamically when gaming. A built-in wrist strap is a tried and true method to prevent a controller from flying out of hand. In VR, concerns over safety and durability are even more important due to 2 primary factors:
  • During VR games, you have no view of the space around you. The OS of the headset has been designed thoroughly to ensure the user is aware if they are getting too close to a wall or if something moves into their play area. But ultimately, mistakes happen and the controller needs to withstand a major blow.
  • VR controllers are not easily replaced. The headset only comes with 1 controller for each hand because you are never expected to be using more than those 2 controllers at any given time. And with the controllers being hand-specific, one controller is not easily subbed out by the other. Luckily, these controllers are not fragile and have been designed to handle a hard fall/throw in a worst case scenario.

Wrist strap 

Quest 2 Controller with battery showing vs. with rechargeable battery cover (additional accessories required)

Battery Life

• Modern controllers are expected to utilize rechargeable batteries over replaceable ones. Quest 2 controllers still utilized an AA battery per controller, though a first party rechargeable battery and dock accessory is available for purchase separately. The Quest Pro controllers made the jump to integrated rechargeable batteries, but not without its consequences on the controller system as a whole.
  • As mentioned earlier, the Quest Pro controllers are substantially heavier than the Quest 2 controllers due to the rechargeable battery.
  • Compared to conventional gaming controllers, VR controllers cannot be easily used while charging. Because of this, users may find themselves being delayed unexpectedly from starting a VR session due to dead controllers. Some may find that replaceable batteries have an advantage over rechargeables in these instances.

Conclusion/Accomplishments

In the year and a half of being a UXR lead at Meta, I made many work accomplishments that I am proud of. Though I cannot publically share the details of these accomplishments, here is a quick rundown:

• I led 10 major UX Research studies that varied drastically in scope and methodology, which challenged me to get creative in my research processes and improved my research reporting skills.
• I became a Subject Matter Expert for VR controllers, using the results of my research and my personal POV to guide decision making.
  
• I drove major design recommendations for a VR controller, resulting in changes to the internal mechanical functionality of the controllers and the various inputs/interfaces utilized by users of the controller.
• I authored an upcoming OS level VR Accessibility feature that will impact millions of Meta Quest users, with impacts to current Quest Pro users as well as future product users.

If you are interested in learning more, I would be happy to walk through some of my work personally.

To learn more about my work at Meta and see portfolio pieces from this role, please reach out directly!

Mario Paolini 2023
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