Digitalisation has currently become a trendy buzzword, and many industries are relying on the advances made in the field of information technology.

Most of the services in Finland and the rest of the world have moved to the online world, so it is important that today’s young people have the opportunity to try and adapt to this ever-changing digital environment.

The Yrityskylä learning solution for primary school meets these needs with its own socio-economic education platform, teaching sixth-graders about working life and society. In the small town made by the schoolchildren, students also learn to act as responsible consumers and can, for example, test the leisure opportunities offered by digitalisation with the latest services, such as the Yrityskylä VR art experience game, Controlled Chaos.

MeKiwi was happy to participate in the production of a virtual art experience in Yrityskylä for sixth-graders across Finland. The art experience called Controlled Chaos allows children (and adults) to create their own immersive work of art in virtual reality.

The main priority for Yrityskylä was to create an experience that does not require schoolchildren to have previous virtual reality experience before trying out the art experience, as not all children have the latest technology at home.

With our expertise in UX design and VR game development, we were able to create an intuitive experience where rules and instructions could be abandoned and which relied solely on children’s natural curiosity and their ability to adapt to new things in a short amount of time.

Design pillars for a smooth VR use experience

  • Base it on real life. The key to a smooth VR experience is to think about what the user would do in a real situation. Pay special attention to your own behavior during the day and think about how it would turn into a VR experience.
  • Avoid written instructions. Reading text in a virtual reality environment can be difficult for those users with poor eyesight. It can also lead to translation problems if your target audience is multilingual. One way around this is to use audiovisual cues, such as arrows to indicate points of interest, as well as haptic feedback through the controller.
  • Keep it simple. Virtual reality can be a mind-boggling experience for a first-timer, and getting used to this new device can take some time. Therefore, product developers should strive to keep the simulation simple in terms of both graphics and tasks. This way, users can familiarize with the platform. As you gain experience with the following exercises, you can be given more complex tasks.