VR Medical Simulation
Redesigning VR interactions for emergency training scenarios
Role
IxD, UI, UX
Duration
July 2023 - Now
Tools
Figma, ShapesXR, UE 5
Team
Asif Moideen
Rajat Kumar
Overview
I3 simulations develops emergency VR training scenarios in collaboration with hospitals and universities. VR Simulations for medical training provide an immersive learning solution that is risk free and scalable. Legacy i3 products such as Resuscitation VR have shown above average system usability indicating general acceptability. Since then the platform has expanded to produce numerous scenarios with support for multiplayer sessions, various roles, advanced tool interactions, procedures etc.
Challenge
While realism increased, the complexity of interactions began to exceed the ease of use of point and click interactions of previous gen products. Simulating real-world tools and actions came with usability challenges. Larger number of procedures and controls for instructors could not be handled by the existing UI system.
Goal
Redesign VR interactions to prioritize usability and clinical skills.
Design UI addressing unique challenges of VR.
Implement changes to improve i3 products: Resuscitation VR, Petit VR
Success metric: Increased usability scores (SUS) and improvements in task specific usability tests
Research
Learnings from legacy products
69.11
System Usability Scale
"Errors tied to usability weren’t correlated to physical difficulty or misclicks — they stemmed from a restricted interaction space and insufficient feedback loops that left users uncertain or confused about outcomes." - insights from research team.
Analysis of i3 products
1. Visibility of system status
Always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.
No feedback while performing physical exams
Hover interaction does not have feedback
No signifier for position of broselow tape
Interactions are disabled while progress bar HUD UI is displayed
Example from heruistic evaluation
Starting from the 3d whiteboard
In order to design for the virtual space, an emergency room was taken as reference. All scale and proportion considerations where taken with respect to the actions performed in the emergency room.
Taskflow
the task flow in a medical simulation is non-linear and case-dependant. The following is a broad classification of various tasks involved
Iterations
Design Process
After evaluating i3 products and exploring VR interactions across simulation applications, we followed an iterative design process, prototyping and testing various changes.
Locomotion
Previous design: Blink teleportion
Intent: Enable Limited teleportation through point and click in 3dof and 6dof devices with a dedicated cancel button on the controller.
Feedback: while users found it easy and straightforward but the interaction could not be scaled to technical skills and team collaboration
Previous design:
Implemented in Resuscitation VR for pediatrics
Prototype 1:
Implemented in Petit VR for pediatrics
Prototype 2:
Currently testing in i3 Nucleus
Prototype 2: Parabolic teleporter
Intent: Enable free teleportation by targeting a position using parabolic pointer.
Feedback: Users often found small variation in the perceived target position and the actual position, mainly due to obstacles in the virtual ER causing the teleporter to be rendered on top of other objects
Activation
Aim
Selection
Transformation
Prototype 2: Teleportation hotspots
Intent: Enable users to teleport to smart hotspots that are customized for intended interactions
Activation
Aim
Selection
Transformation
Tool interactions
Affordances & Signifiers
In order to make the system feel natural and easy to use, each step of the interaction was designed to give feedback and inform the user about the virtual environment
Spatial UI
Challenges
UI in VR presented challenges that had to be solved for a dynamic and customizable virtual environment
Clipping
Depth-perception mismatch
Poor readability
Collisions
Ergonomics & Comfort
To create a system that doesn't disrupt the actions in the virtual environment and provide information that is contextual to the users needs, world anchored and player anchored UI were tested and categorized.
Layout
a) Inputs & modals - keyboard, numpad, fast forward, notification UI
b) Instructors dashboard
c) Context menus
d) Configuration UI
Solutions
To tackle the challenges of the virtual environment, UI panels were designed to behave dynamically but constrained to objects bounding boxes and move relative to users eye level
Designed to reducing fatigue
focused scrolling for scaling content
Constrained 3d layout
Scaled relative to bounding boxes
Poor readability
Realtime scaling for readability
Constrained dimensions to avoid clipping
Smart animations for collisions
Responsive raycast
Prototyping
Iterated design were prototyped and tested on ShapesXR and Unreal engine.
Laptop
Debriefing
Notifications
Briefing
Simulation fast forward
Mechanical ventilator configuration
Phone
Conetxtual menu
Dosage configuration
Implementation
Redesigned interactions and UI were implemented on feature level across i3 applications including Petit VR, Resuscitation VR, Second chance VR, Obstetrics and Cardiac Arrest
Impact
87.86
SUS Score
81.8%
Ease of use
Resuscitation VR: Updates after heuristic evaluation improving feedback resulted in high SUS score, perception of ease and 90.9% preference for frequent use
5/5
overall positive experience
4/5
Ease of use
PetitVR: While testing with 11 physicians from 8 countries, Petit VR showcased high level of acceptance with a majority of users without VR experience. 93% of clinicians stated they would adopt the platform in their hospital. 87% of clinicians found the simulation to be highly useful for their training.