ToDone

Virtual Reality App

We deve­lo­ped the virtual reality expe­ri­ence ToDone during a two-week summer academy of Hamburg Krea­tiv Gesell­schaft and the Career Center of Hamburg Univer­sity on the subject Learning with virtual reality (VR) in the fields of healt­hwise preven­tion and stress manage­ment. During finding the idea with the help of inter­views and design thin­king methods we noti­ced that stress often results from insuf­fi­ci­ent self orga­ni­za­tion and time manage­ment.

The appli­ca­tion ToDone is a combi­na­tion of a mobile app and an appli­ca­tion for virtual reality head­sets like HTC Vive or Oculus Rift. With the app you can create the tasks you need to accom­plish. Ther­eby you can chose a title, notes, the task’s cate­gory and esti­ma­ted time. These tasks can be presor­ted, edited and marked as done. Addi­tio­nally the app offers a concen­tra­tion mode which locks the phone will for the prede­ter­mi­ned time.

In virtual reality the tasks can be sorted on time shel­ves. Hereby we refer to the method of mind pala­ces and the assump­tion that spatial arran­ged items can better be remem­be­red. The user has a spatial over­view when they want to do what and can easier recall this over­view later than with using a simple list. Addi­tio­nally there are semi-trans­pa­rent buffer cubes laying on the shel­ves which can’t be remo­ved. These buffer cubes prevent the user from plan­ning too much for one day and force him to include empty spaces.

Tasks which are marked as done in the app appear on an extra podium in virtual reality. They turn trans­pa­rent and can be broken. Inside there is a surprise for the user. These can be deco­ra­ti­ons for the virtual world or modu­les which allow to build bigger objects. Ther­eby we animate the user to accom­plish more tasks to complete these objects. This reward system is an essen­tial part of the appli­ca­tion. Addi­tio­nally there’s an assi­stant in VR and the app who supports the user with tips and hints and helps to be more produc­tive and concen­tra­ted.

We reali­zed a working proto­type for HTC Vive and a click­dummy of the mobile app.

Eli Breuing, Farina Hamann, Elke Inggrid Kumala, Dalia Moniat and Nata­lia Pozoga

Summer academy of Hamburg Krea­tiv Gesell­schaft and the Career Centers of Hamburg Univer­sity, August 2017