Project

VR divED!

In collaboration with Qatar Museum, the VR divEd! application is an investigation into virtual reality serious games for educational purposes.

Pearl diving was one of Qatar’s main industries prior to the discovery of oil, but is considered a lost tradition today. In the VR divEd! application, children experience a historical narrative in a gamified learning task. The student takes the role of a diver and descends to depths of over 30 meters to find enough pearl oysters. After the diver has ascended and is back on board of the boat, the next task is to open the oysters. When users click on an oyster holding a pearl, depending on the size, the specific local name, such as Dana for the largest pearl, appears. The VR divEd! app also shows a score based on the number of pearl oysters collected, which adds the element of gamification. For ease-of-use, the application can be downloaded onto a regular smartphone and viewed with a Google Cardboard VR headset.

As outcome of this investigation, it became clear that designing for ease-of-use needs to consider both user-experience of the student and equipment set-up by the educator.