Designing for Immersion: Multi-Sensory Onboarding at Scale

In late 2022, I helped design VIVERSE Home — a personalized 3D home environment for managing avatars, accessing apps, and organizing events. The challenge was to create an onboarding experience that felt natural to first-time VR users, while also establishing a scalable framework for future features.


This wasn’t just about placing UI in a virtual room — it required designing interactions that combined sight, sound, and touch to guide users through the space without overwhelming them. From the earliest information architecture sketches to the final Unity implementation, I collaborated with engineers, artists, and education specialists to ensure the tutorial flow felt effortless and intuitive.


By prioritizing multi-sensory cues, fostering strong cross-functional communication, and demonstrating adaptability to late-stage changes, I delivered a tutorial system that not only launched successfully at CES 2023 but also established a scalable design foundation for future features

Company:

VIVERSE

Role:

UX&UI Designer

Year:

Nov 2022 - Jun 2023

Our team

3

UX&UI Designers

15

Developers

8

Artists

1

Quality Control

The Problem

For first-time VR users, onboarding isn’t just about “reading the instructions.” It’s about feeling oriented, comfortable, and confident in a completely unfamiliar space — often while wearing a headset for the first time.


When I joined the VIVERSE Home project, the product’s home environment was still in early development. The tutorial needed to:

  1. Introduce key features without overwhelming new users

  2. Guide actions naturally, without breaking immersion

  3. Be flexible enough to support future features and environment changes


The stakes were high — this tutorial would be the first interaction many users ever had with VIVERSE Home, and it had to work equally well for casual consumers and enterprise partners showcasing the product at events like CES 2023.


The initial tutorial plan was built for an early version of the home environment, which meant every detail — from movement space to feature locations — was tightly tied to the original

previous vvh
previous vvh
previous vvh

Before the VIVERSE home release, the launcher in the HTC VIVE is just a bridge for user to open the application.

Challenge

Designing a tutorial for a VR home environment was a first for many of us, myself included. I had limited VR experience when the project started, so I had to quickly get up to speed on VR capabilities, technical constraints, and user expectations by working closely with engineers and artists.


The biggest challenges included:

  1. Building a clear and intuitive user flow without a finalized 3D home environment. The environment and features were evolving rapidly, so I had to design with flexibility in mind.

  2. Balancing the ideal user experience with technical feasibility, including controller feedback, spatial audio cues, and visual design — all within strict deadlines.

  3. Taking on partial project management responsibilities, coordinating between development, design, QA, education, and copywriting teams to ensure smooth delivery.

  4. Scaling down and prioritizing features into phases, so that the product could launch on time for major events like CES 2023, despite shifting requirements.


Despite these hurdles, I proactively learned Unity basics by sitting alongside developers, testing early builds, and refining the design based on real-time feedback. This hands-on approach was crucial to understanding the possibilities and limitations of the VR platform.

Victoria, Julian and I originally planned a fully featured home environment, but to meet the launch timeline for CES and MWC the following year, we decided to split the features into two major phases and focus on delivering the core ones first.

Solution

To tackle the challenges, I immersed myself fully in the project’s evolving environment. Sitting side-by-side with engineers and artists allowed me to understand how the 3D space was being built, helping me align design decisions with technical realities and better estimate development timelines.

I took the initiative to lead design workshop that helped the team focus on market opportunities and identify the most impactful features to prioritize. This guided us in breaking the product into manageable phases without losing sight of the overall vision.

design thinking
design thinking

During the workshop

VIVERSE Home's primary users are individuals willing to invest in and experiment with new technology, as well as digital creators seeking an immersive environment for creation and work. The space needed to support both single and multiple users, and include cloud storage for users to store their digital content.

For the tutorial experience, I crafted detailed flowcharts and user POV mockups in Figma that specified sightlines, controller haptics, audio cues, and visual feedback — all designed to guide first-time VR users intuitively through the space. I wrote initial copy drafts for the education team, explaining the purpose behind each tutorial step to ensure consistent messaging.


My design specifications were thorough and clear, providing developers, artists, quality controls, and copywriters with everything they needed to implement and test features smoothly. I also frequently tested builds directly in Unity, giving feedback to the team to polish interactions and visuals in real time.


This collaborative and hands-on process ensured the tutorial not only educated users but also created an immersive, cohesive experience that reflected the futuristic and professional brand image we aimed for.

There were 13 main user flows we needed to outline first. We split the features and each worked on different parts of the flow design.

Start with the tutorial

This is one of the features I'm in design for this product. Besides mapping out the steps, I also detailed how the user's sight shifts, what the voice guidance says, and how the controller should respond at each step.


This tutorial want to teach users the following:

  1. The environment

  2. The menu

  3. Teleporting

  4. Turning

tutorial 1
tutorial 1

Multi-Sensory

Designing tutorials in VR isn’t just about what the user sees — it’s also about what they hear and feel. For first-time users of the VIVE XR Elite, I carefully considered how to guide them using multiple sensory cues, such as visual prompts, controller vibrations, and audio narration. For example, how do we teach someone to press the X button on their controller? Should a visual hint appear below their view — and if so, where should it be placed so it’s noticeable but not intrusive? Would a light vibration on the controller nudge them to look down and spot the highlighted button? Is a voiceover reminder more intuitive at that point?

These questions shaped my UX approach. I tested each tutorial step hands-on in the test environment, often working side by side with engineers and artists to validate the interaction quality in real time. I documented every detail in Figma — from the tutorial flow to user POV mockups — and included clear notes on sight transitions, audio scripts, and tactile feedback. I also drafted initial copy for the education team, ensuring the instructional tone aligned with the design intent This level of precision helped streamline collaboration across teams and ensured a more seamless experience for users stepping into VR for the first time.

tutorial 4
tutorial 4
tutorial 5
tutorial 5

Other areas I contributed to

VR world Transition

Connect to 3rd party applications from home

Stairs

Movement guidance

Instruction

Specification for product team

Controller calibration

Specification for product team

Menu

Tooltip and status guide for product team

The key takeaway

Late in production, the entire home environment underwent a major redesign to create a more imaginative and immersive atmosphere. This meant the tutorial space, movement areas, and interactive elements all had to be rethought.


Rather than treating this as a setback, I adapted quickly — fine-tuning the tutorial flow, updating UI specifications, and re-testing in Unity to ensure every interaction still felt intuitive for first-time users. My approach relied on principles that apply to any product: designing for clarity across sensory channels, planning for scalability, and maintaining consistency under changing constraints.

The result was a seamless onboarding experience that matched the new environment’s tone while preserving usability and design integrity.

Before

Tutorial area - purple

After

Tutorial area - purple

Before

Instruction spot

After

Instruction spot

🔑 Transferable Principles from This Project

Designing for multi-sensory engagement — integrating visual, auditory, and haptic cues for clear, intuitive guidance.

  1. Iterating under evolving requirements — adapting flows and UI while preserving design intent during major product changes.

  2. Maintaining usability at scale — ensuring consistent onboarding for a diverse, global audience.

  3. Cross-functional collaboration — working closely with engineers, artists, and writers to align interaction, copy, and visual design.

  4. Testing in production-like environments — validating designs directly in Unity to ensure real-world performance.

When the home environment was completely redesigned mid-production, I adjusted the tutorial flow and UI details to fit the new space — ensuring a seamless experience even as core elements shifted. This video shows how the final version evolved.