THE BASICS YOU NEED TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND ABOUT METAVERSE
Metaverse became a buzzword when Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement that Facebook would be renamed as Meta. All of a sudden, everybody is talking about the metaverse, and everyone is looking forward to the new era.
I was aware of the term ‘multiverse’ (thanks to Avengers movies), when I saw ‘metaverse’ showing up in different articles, blogs and discussions, it intrigued me to deep dive a bit and understand what this buzz is all about. This article is collation of different concepts, vision, theories, viewpoints and technological explanation about the metaverse, which I came across in last few months. The way metaverse is conceptualized today and more advance thoughts to come in the future, one thing is for sure, this will take a lots of creative and innovative minds to make this applicable & successful both in terms of experience and economy.
The critical question remains that, with more than 160 tech giants currently working on creating the metaverse, how will designers bring this vision to life?
There is no concrete definition of the metaverse, as each person may describe it in a different way. But a general definition places it as a real-time conversation or interaction between people within an online environment. Casey Newton provides a further definition based on a discussion with Mark Zuckerberg, he describes it “as the next iteration of the internet in which it supports online 3D virtual environments through a multitude of platforms such as computer, Virtual Reality(VR) or Augmented Reality(AR).”
You can think of it as the Internet in 3D and sometimes it’s more than 3 dimensional; multi-dimensional. Instead of connecting to the Internet, we’ll manage to ‘live’ inside it with virtual identities known as avatars. The metaverse is often described as a parallel virtual world in which we’ll be able to work, learn, socialize, play, shop and own assets.
WHY METAVERSE? WHY NOW?
The concept of a metaverse is not a new one. In many ways this is a linear and obvious progression towards a virtual second world around the physical world we live in. Online, multi-player, role-playing worlds like The Sims or Second Life have been around for nearly 20 years, with players spending an average of 20 hours per week in these worlds. Modern equivalents like Minecraft, World of Warcraft and Fortnite have millions of users, and huge supporting economies. We are now at a point, where big brands across different industries showing their interest towards having presence in metaverse and bring an entirely different way to shape the business future. A number of technological advancements, enabled this vision of the metaverse. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) spearheading the journey for improving the user experience and furthermore, shifting from user ‘experience’ to user ‘participation’. Blockchain has enabled digital currencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The new methods to transact and own digital goods are allowing creators to monetize their activities through tokens. In addition to monetization, and as a means to exchange value, token-holders can also participate in the platform’s governance (e.g. vote on decisions). This democratic ownership economy coupled with the possibility of interoperability, could unlock huge economic opportunities, whereby digital goods and services are no longer captive to a singular gaming platform or brand. From a social perspective, the development of more immersive virtual experiences is helping people to build communities based on shared ideals, and to express themselves in more authentic ways.
Adding to this, COVID-19 accelerated the digitization of our lives and normalized more persistent and multi-purpose online engagement and communication. It is this amalgamation of technological, social and economic drivers that is resulting in the increasing interest in the metaverse.
Jon Radoff is an entrepreneur, author and game designer. For the past few years, he has been writing extensively about the topics surrounding Web 3.0 in his Medium page “Building the Metaverse”, explores the 9 mega trends shaping the future of the metaverse
As Zuckerberg said “the metaverse will not be created by one company,” rather by “creators and developers making new experiences and digital items that are interoperable and unlock a massively larger creative economy than the one constrained by today’s platforms and their policies.”
Yes, if metaverse evolves like the way it is perceived today, it will be another human life changing experience after Internet.
Accenture looks at the metaverse as an evolving and expanding continuum on multiple dimensions:
• Comprises multiple technologies including extended reality, blockchain, artificial intelligence, digital twins, and smart objects — including cars and factories, and edge computing.
• Encompasses the “virt-real” — the range of experiences, from purely virtual to a blend of virtual and physical.
- Describes the spectrum of emerging consumer experiences and the business applications and models across the enterprise that will be reimagined and transformed.
KEY TECHNOLOGIES BEHIND THE METAVERSE
Blockchain and Cryptocurrency
Blockchain technology provides decentralized and transparent solutions for many digital assets. Furthermore, in a virtual environment, these assets are owned, gathered, transferred, monitored, and accessible. Furthermore, cryptocurrencies make value transmission easier for a wide range of virtual-world applications.
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) allow users to immerse themselves in and interact with a virtual environment. In addition, augmented reality transforms physical objects and characters into digital visual components that can be employed in the metaverse. Virtual Reality also uses computer-generated visuals to create a virtual environment.
AR and VR are employed in the metaverse to build a digital world with physical simulations. As a result, companies are investing into these technologies to develop metaverse solutions.
Artificial Intelligence
Businesses and their customers are being transformed by artificial intelligence (AI). In addition, AI pioneers are now investigating the Metaverse’s possible benefits from the technology. Machine Learning and AI algorithms are also used to deliver actionable findings and insights.
In a similar spirit, the metaverse suggests that AI is a useful technology capable of engaging with millions of people at the same time.
Internet of Things
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a cloud-connected network of networked devices. In addition, IoT makes use of sensors and technologies to automatically convey data. In the Metaverse, the major role of IoT is to collect and share data from the real world.
7 LAYERS OF THE METAVERSE
Jon Radoff in his conceptual framework explains that metaverse consists of seven tiers that describe the value-chain of the metaverse market. These include opportunities, technological innovations and solutions to our current problems.
Layer 1: Experience
Contrary to popular belief, the metaverse isn’t solely a 3D version of the real world. It will be the ultimate dematerialized version of physical space, objects and distance. And yes, this space will also include 3D, graphics and even 2D.
As the physical space becomes dematerialized, the constraints physicality brings will be lifted. Hence, the metaverse will provide us with an abundance of experiences that we are not able to enjoy today.
Layer 2: Discovery
Jon Radoff describes the discovery layer as “the push and pull that introduces people to new experiences”. In the metaverse ecosystem, the discovery systems of inbound and outbound continue to exist. Inbound discovery occurs when people are actively looking for information. Meanwhile, outbound refers to the method of seeking to push messages out to people whether or not they asked for it.
Some of the aspects of information sharing will be crucial in the realm of Web 3.0. Radoff argues that community-driven content is crucial for metaverse marketing.
Layer 3: Creator Economy
Earlier versions of the internet required some degree of programming knowledge for creators to design and build tools, apps or asset markets. These days, thanks to the web application frameworks, developing web applications is possible without coding. As a result, the number of designers and creators on the web is increasing exponentially.
Layer 4: Spatial Computing
Spatial computing is a term used to describe a tech solution that merges virtual and augmented reality. According to Radoff, spatial computing helps us manipulate and enter into 3D spaces. It allows us to digitize objects using the cloud, enable sensors to react with motors and digitize the physical world around us through spatial mapping.
Layer 5: Decentralization
Decentralization one of the key features of the metaverse, along with being open and distributed.
When alternatives are maximized and systems are interoperable and constructed within competitive markets, experimentation and growth skyrocket. Moreover, creators become the sovereigns over their own data and products.
Layer 6: Human Interface
The key aspect of the hardware layer of the metaverse is human interference. With the combination of spatial computing and human interface, we’ll soon be able to gather information about our surroundings, use maps and even create shared AR experiences by just looking around at the physical world.
Layer 7: Infrastructure
The seventh layer includes the technology that makes everything that is mentioned above become real. Ultimately, for all outer layers to exist we need technological infrastructure consisting of 5G and 6G computing. These will massively improve bandwidth and reduce network contention and latency.
METAVERSE DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS — SHIFTING FROM USER’S EXPERIENCE TO PLAYER’S EXPERIENCE
In the metaverse, users aren’t passive content consumers; they are active participants, players. Like in the real world, everything that users do in the metaverse impacts the system. It is a foundational rule that designers have to keep in mind.
The current internet is mostly about transactions and access to information. The metaverse, we’ll mostly be about activities. As the metaverse expands to include immersive learning, shopping, education, travel, and other never-thought-of applications, it will become more game-like, which will obviously be more activity-oriented.
Ray Oldenburg coined the term “third place” (beyond the home and work) as the venues for community life, social interaction and creativity. Currently, the third place is partly filled by social networks. However, physical third places provide a venue for activities. Most social networks focus on only one main activity: sharing content. It’s already been happening inside games. Thus, metaverse designers can rely on tried and tested game mechanics. Massive Multiplayer Online Video Games (MMOVG) are the most valuable sources of mechanics that generate excellent user engagement and make users spend hours in virtual space.
Dynamism
Metaverse is an online environment that will change all the time. All objects in the metaverse are dynamic. Users can change objects by interacting with them, and objects themselves can change and transform because they are affected by natural physical events such as metabolism or metamorphosis.
Realism
It will be much easier for users to learn how to interact with the virtual world if the virtual world will closely resemble the real world. As we migrate from ‘pages’ to ‘stages’, the first movement will inevitably be the copy of real-world references. We go from Skeuomorphism to Metamorphism. As it has been seen in other occasions (e.g. First Apple’s iPhone UI), the transition from material to virtual interfaces might often be facilitated with use of analogies.
Live & never ending
Unlike the game that can be paused or end, metaverse never pauses or ends; it just continues indefinitely. All events in the metaverse happen as they do in real life — if you miss some event, you cannot go back in time to join it (there are no save states). Metaverse experience is persistent — it’s a living experience that exists consistently for everyone and in real-time.
Interoperability
This is probably the driving factor of Metaverse. Let us just take a look at the Internet. Internet is equipped with layered standards that allow different and diverse networks and subnetworks to clearly interact with each other. In the real world, when our bodies move between locations, our identity too travels from one place to the other without any trouble. Even our possessions and assets can be transferred from one location to the other without undergoing any major changes. So, there is a continuity in the real world that keeps us and our objects intact during transit. And this is why, metaverse, the integration of various virtual worlds aims at providing a platform for socio cultural interaction, just like in the physical world. Such amalgamation would make all virtual worlds, regardless of its size and purpose, part of a larger entity or existence.
Storytelling than Designing
If you think of the metaverse as an endless web of experiences, designers will have to visualize and tell stories through their design in order to find meaningful and efficient ways to connect all those experiences together.
Design Behavior
In this new immersive world of the metaverse, designers will need to focus on field research in order to understand how product usability will be impacted by the user’s actual physical space. Since users will experience the metaverse through VR headsets from real physical locations, designers need to be aware of how their products will behave in different physical surroundings. The challenge for metaverse designers is not so much how quickly a user can accomplish a goal, but rather whether the designed experience is immersive enough to encourage goal pursuits.
The Unique Digital “Me”
There is a digital “me” that exists for everyone in the physical world. We use our bank accounts, credit cards and memberships in various organizations as credentials that represent us. We use them almost everywhere to get things done. Personal, social, financial, entertainment… all our needs are carried out by such credentials that represent us. So, a persona is a sum total of a person’s online presence, the digital content that he creates, views or modifies. Such presence is vital in the virtual world too. Many virtual worlds have virtual banks and currencies embedded in them that facilitates buying, creating and viewing. Users are assigned with various virtual identities that they can use to access various content.
Accessibility & Inclusivity
In addition, UX will enhance accessibility of metaverse, working towards the goal that all users enjoy an equivalent experience as much as possible.
Ethical Design
Within the metaverse, design decisions have never been more important. Managing toxicity, limiting bad behavior and bullying will probably be a top consideration for metaverse designers.
Designers will need to prepare themselves for the future, not only technologically but also in their design culture and thought process. They must first stop thinking of people who interact with technology as “users instead, they should consider them “players” — people who inhabit, live, and exist in this virtual world. To provide fantastic experiences for “players,” UX designers will need to create a truly immersive design. One that allows people to live in virtual surroundings rather than just visit them. They must be totally engaged in order to not only attain, but also to maintain, uncomplicated goals. UX Designers will need to widen their horizons in terms of talents and disciplines to achieve this. Economics, sociology, and psychology are all implicated because these virtual worlds are similar to societies with altogether other sets of ethics.
USE CASES FOR THE METAVERSE
It is not just business-to-consumer environments that will benefit. The metaverse will provide a massive opportunity for business-to-business enterprises. Take a manufacturer that is buying new parts for its equipment. Presently, the process involves receiving a physical brochure or an emailed PDF with static 2D pictures. In the metaverse, users could test the products in a virtual environment at lower cost. Imagine being able to build a complex digital twin of a factory or industrial space at massive scale, and test how robotics systems will interact with the physical environment.
One of the great possibilities of the metaverse is that it will massively expand access to the marketplace for consumers from emerging and frontier economies. The internet has already unlocked access to goods and services that were previously out of reach. Now, workers in low-income countries, for example, may be able to get jobs in western companies without having to emigrate. Educational opportunities will also expand, with VR worlds being a low-cost and effective way to access training. With these developments there will also have to be clear governance.
From a corporate perspective, there are opportunities to massively scale. Instead of having stores in every city, a major retailer might build a global hub in the metaverse that is able to serve millions of customers. Beyond retailers, the metaverse will turbocharge the shift in gaming, sports betting and gambling from cash to crypto. Companies such as Sightline Payments, that have built infrastructure to support cashless digital gaming for live sports and casinos, are ideally placed to capitalize on the opportunity as these industries rapidly transition to offering experiences to gamers in the metaverse.
The metaverse is the next generation of the internet and it’s knocking our door with endless possibilities and opportunities. As a designer or player of the metaverse you need to be ready to embrace this paradigm shift and dive into your ‘third place”.
If you have patiently came till this point and intrigued to know more about metaverse, below are the references for the above article and further reading recommendations:
https://www.leewayhertz.com/seven-layers-of-metaverse/
https://usabilitygeek.com/from-users-to-players-the-future-of-ux-design-in-the-metaverse/
https://www.engadget.com/nike-roblox-nikeland-metaverse-192234036.html
https://www.informationweek.com/software/into-the-metaverse-a-game-changing-year-for-ui-and-ux
https://www.bonanza.design/blogs/metaverse-how-it-impacts-a-designers-life/
https://www.theuxda.com/blog/how-online-banking-design-should-work-ux-case-study
https://www.pcquest.com/importance-uiux-design-metaverse/
https://www.uxconnections.com/the-metaverse-how-it-can-be-shaped-by-ux-designs/
https://www.ethosvo.org/the-metaverse-within-ethos/
https://www.bocasay.com/how-metaverse-revolutionize-ux-ui-design/
https://uxplanet.org/metaverse-design-guide-part-2-7ab70a349919
https://www.happiestminds.com/wpcontent/uploads/2022/04/Metaverse.pdf
https://srushticreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/THE-POWER-AND-SCOPE-OF-METAVERSE.pdf
https://tuhat.helsinki.fi/ws/portalfiles/portal/169348619/METAVERSE.pdf
