Readings: *VR Has A Harassment Problem, A Blueprint for Designing Inclusive AR/VR Experiences and the Designing Safe Spaces for Virtual Reality chapter of* ‘Ethics in Design and Communication.’

Write-Up: Find and try three social VR applications in the Oculus app store. Stress-test each to uncover and use their safety features. Write about every safety feature you can find (3+) and whether or not you think that they utilize Hedonomic design principles.

• [ ] Use proxemics to define virtual space
• [ ] Establish virtual behavior expectations
• [ ] Allow users to define their preferences in advance
• [ ] Allow people to easily opt in or out
• [ ] Provide quick-action remediation tools for tough situations

VRChat:

• Trust Rank: an indicator of how much time a user has spent in VRChat, how much content they’ve contributed, the friends they’ve made, and many other factors.
• The user can edit these settings based on a users trust level:
  • Voice — Mutes or unmutes a user’s microphone (voice chat)
  • Avatar — Hides or shows a user’s avatar as well as all avatar features. When an avatar is hidden, it shows a “muted” avatar
  • User Icon — Controls user icon visibility for this Trust Rank. When an icon is hidden, it is "censored" with a mosaic effect.
  • Avatar Audio — Enables or disables sound effects from a user’s avatar (not their microphone)
  • Animations — Enables or disables custom animations on a user’s avatar
  • Shaders — When disabled, all shaders on a user’s avatar are reverted to Standard. The behavior behind the Shader blocking system is detailed on our Shader Blocking System doc page
  • Particles and Lights — Enables or disables particle systems on a user’s avatar, as well as any light sources. This will also block Line and Trail Renderer components.

<aside> 💡 VRChat is one that I personally used before this assignment and was the only social app experience I had for the longest. When I entered the space I was confused as to what was going on. The transition between setup and entering the space was quite sudden.

• [ ] Use proxemics to define virtual space
• [x] Establish virtual behavior expectations
• [x] Allow users to define their preferences in advance
• [x] Allow people to easily opt in or out
• [x] Provide quick-action remediation tools for tough situations </aside>

Rec Room:

• [Personal space bubble]- Every player has their own personal space bubble they can configure. As players enter your personal space bubble they become fully invisible.
• [Stop gesture] - A quick 'talk to the hand' gesture you can perform on another player that provides options for muting, blocking, reporting, and vote kicking.
• [Mute and Mute all voice audio] - Choose between muting individual players or all voice audio.
• [Block] - You may block individual players, automatically muting them and preventing them from joining your custom rooms.
• [Vote kick] - You may issue a room-wide vote kick where other players will vote to decide if the player is kicked from the room.