/hz-immersive-designer

name: hz-immersive-designer
license: Apache-2.0
description: "Guides design of comfortable, intuitive VR/MR experiences for Meta VR and Horizon OS — comfort guidelines, interaction patterns, spatial layout, accessibility. Use during UX design review or when evaluating comfort and accessibility. Build paths: Meta Spatial SDK, Unity, Unreal, native OpenXR, and WebXR; for 2D panel apps use hz-panel-designer if available. Use hz-quest-verify-first if the build path is unclear."

Immersive Designer

A knowledge skill for designing comfortable, intuitive, and accessible VR and MR experiences on Meta VR. This skill provides design principles, best practices, and review checklists for spatial computing UX.

When to Use

• Designing new VR or MR experiences for Meta VR
• Reviewing UX decisions in existing Meta VR applications
• Evaluating comfort and usability of spatial interfaces
• Planning interaction models for immersive content
• Ensuring accessibility compliance in XR applications
• Advising on spatial layout, depth placement, and UI positioning
• Troubleshooting user comfort complaints such as motion sickness or eye strain

Core Design Principles

1. **Comfort First** — User comfort is non-negotiable. Motion sickness, eye strain, and fatigue will cause users to abandon an app regardless of content quality. When in doubt, choose the more conservative option.

2. **Presence** — Maintain the feeling of "being there" through consistent spatial cues, coherent lighting, plausible physics, and stable world anchoring. In MR, blend virtual content seamlessly with physical surroundings.

3. **Intuitive Interaction** — Leverage gestures and spatial relationships that map to real-world expectations. Introduce novel patterns gradually with clear affordances. Never assume prior VR experience.

4. **Accessibility** — Design for the widest range of abilities from the start. Every core function should have alternative interaction paths, and comfort options should be adjustable.

Key Design Areas

Comfort

Managing user comfort across all aspects of the experience. This encompasses motion sickness prevention, field of view management, locomotion design, refresh rate considerations, session length awareness, and vestibular mismatch avoidance.

See [Comfort Guidelines](references/comfort-guidelines.md) for detailed guidance.

Interaction

Designing how users engage with the virtual world and its elements. This covers direct manipulation, ray casting, gaze-based interaction, voice input, gesture recognition, controller mapping, haptic feedback, and multi-modal input support.

See [Interaction Patterns](references/interaction-patterns.md) for detailed guidance.

Spatial Layout

Structuring the three-dimensional space for optimal usability and visual comfort. This includes depth zone management, UI placement and readability, scale and proportion, spatial audio positioning, and environmental design fundamentals.

See [Spatial Layout](references/spatial-layout.md) for detailed guidance.

Accessibility

Ensuring the experience is usable by people with diverse abilities. This spans physical accessibility (one-handed use, seated play), visual accessibility (contrast, colorblind support), audio accessibility (captions, visual indicators), cognitive accessibility (clear instructions, adjustable pacing), and motion sensitivity accommodations.

See [Accessibility](references/accessibility.md) for detailed guidance.

Quick Design Review Checklist

Use this checklist when reviewing any VR or MR experience design. Each item includes specific pass/fail measurements where applicable. Guidelines evolve — when an item feels stale, confirm it against current docs with `metavr docs search "<topic>"` before citing it.

Comfort

• Does the locomotion system follow comfort guidelines (snap turning default, teleportation option, vignette during movement)?
• Is the camera ever moved without direct user input? Any camera movement not initiated by the user's physical head motion is a comfort violation.
• Is the horizon line stable during all interactions?
• Does the application target at least 72 Hz refresh rate? 90 Hz is recommended for Quest 3, and 120 Hz for fast-paced content.
• Are there session length reminders or natural break points every 20-30 minutes?
• Is there a risk of vestibular mismatch in any scenario?
• **Locomotion speed**: Smooth locomotion speed should not exceed 1.4 m/s (walking pace) without vignette. Speeds above 3 m/s require aggressive FOV restriction.
• **Rotation**: Snap turn increments should be 30-45 degrees. Smooth turn speed should default to 60-90 degrees/second with user-adjustable range.

Viewing and Readability

• Are primary UI elements placed between **1.0 m and 2.0 m** from the user? This is the comfort zone where accommodation-vergence conflict is minimal.
• **Minimum text size**: Text must subtend at least **1.0 degree of visual arc** at its intended viewing distance. At 1.0 m, this is approximately **17.5 mm** (roughly 50px at Quest 3 resolution). At 2.0 m, double the physical size.
• Is critical content placed within **30 degrees** of center gaze? Content beyond 30 degrees requires head movement. Content beyond 55 degrees is outside comfortable neck rotation.
• Are there any content elements closer than **0.5 m** to the user? Objects closer than 0.5 m cause vergence-accommodation conflict and eye strain. Never place interactive content closer than 0.5 m.
• Do wide UI surfaces (wider than **0.6 m** at their viewing distance) use curved panels to maintain consistent focal distance across the panel?
• **Maximum panel width**: Individual panels should not exceed **50 degrees** of visual arc. For a panel at 1.5 m, this is approximately **1.4 m** wide.

Interaction Quality

• Are interaction targets at least **48 mm x 48 mm** (approximately 2.8 degrees at 1.0 m) for controller ray interaction and at least **64 mm x 64 mm** for hand tracking poke/pinch?