Visions of our Augmented Future
Brief thoughts on Apple Vision Pro through the lenses of a Product Designer and Technologist.
Here are my initial thoughts on Apple Vision Pro as an avid user of VR technology since 2016 and as a Product Designer for 8+ years. Previously, I have owned the HTC Vive, Valve Index, and Quest 2—I currently use a Quest 3. I used Apple Vision Pro for a week before deciding to return it.
Suggested Gestures
There is a need for a gesture to get into Control Centre more quickly. I propose a pinch and pull-down gesture. Similarly, it takes too much effort to get into the Home Screen quickly — for which I propose pinching both hands at the same time. Both of these gestures maintain Apple’s pattern of initiating an action with a pinch gesture.
Passthrough
The passthrough on AVP needs improvement. Although it’s better than the Quest 3, the colors are still muted, the rendered image is grainy and does not display the full-color spectrum. This is something I hope will improve over time. For AVP to be a successful AR headset, Apple needs to ensure it reaches human-eye pass-through quality. It must feel like looking through a pair of glasses with zero latency and no visual quality degradation.
Lack of Controllers
For AVP to succeed as a VR headset, it requires positional controllers of some kind for gaming. However, I don’t believe Apple has VR on their product roadmap for this device.
I found hand tracking in an app like Fruit Ninja to be embarrassingly bad to the point of being unusable. This is something that Apple needs to address if they insist on not supporting any kind of positional controllers.
Window Management
I would like to see a built-in OS tool similar to screen snapping tools on macOS for creating a fixed grid of screens at the same resolution and screen size that I am used to on my MacBook. It requires too much effort to place windows in space. Windows can easily get lost when placed in front of each other. It is a challenge to find the right application. There needs to be some equivalent of an app switcher on iOS or Command-Tab on macOS. There also needs to be a way to pin apps in a specific geospatial location without those windows moving when the Digital Crown is pressed to recenter the user’s view.
Comfort
The current fabric head straps are not comfortable enough. In my experience with VR headsets, hard plastic head straps provide much more structure and better distribute weight around the user’s head. These headstraps however make sitting in some chairs to watch a movie uncomfortable even if they make extended use while standing very comfortable. Reducing the weight of AVP could make fabric head straps possible but I suspect the timeline for that is too far in the future such that a hard plastic head strap needs to be designed by Apple or a third party if Apple is unwilling to devote the resources to such a project. For Apple’s existing dual loop head strap the top strap goes over the head side-to-side rather than front-to-back. In my experience, VR head straps with front-to-back straps tend to be more comfortable.
Other Thoughts
For it to succeed at all, as an AR headset, XR headset, or VR headset, it needs to be lighter, cheaper, more comfortable, and use a built-in battery. As someone who has experienced both true wireless VR and wired VR, there is no going back to having a wire once you’ve experienced a wireless VR setup. The wire gets in the way of immersion too frequently.
I would like to see Apple add support for using AVP’s personas in macOS.
Lastly, the animation could be sped up for resizing windows or have the resize corner UI always visible. It’s frustrating that I’m slowed down by the animation and can’t immediately look at, and grab, a corner to resize.
Wrap-Up
As a technologist, I look forward to seeing how Apple will iterate and improve upon this product. I returned AVP as it’s not a product ready for consumer use yet. It has major issues with all of the following use cases: work/productivity, AR gaming, VR gaming, and media consumption. Until AVP2 or AVP3, I’ll continue exploring virtual and augmented worlds with my Quest 3.
