What is Diegetic or Diegesis?
Diegesis is most often used in film to describe the difference between elements that are narrated compared to elements of a movie which are part of the environment such as characters and props. Some maybe used to break the "4th Wall" the connection between the characters and the viewers. This concept can be applied to different fields such as video games, literature and many other things that have narrative story telling from several view points.
It can also be applied to UI in video games which allows the the connection to this project to be made. Designing a UI which fits within the world that is being created in VR is important and their are several ways in doing this. For example a UI which is non-diegetic "breaks the 4th Wall" is most main menu screens in video games which are designed to allow the user to navigate around and perform basic tasks such as access the settings menu, etc... This is in comparison to a game such as The Witcher which have designed their UI so that the elements appear to fit the world and have a design style which fits more closely with the narrative.
This menu still has elements of Non-Diegetic UI purely due to the limitations of a 2d screen interface in a game. Where the difference between these types of UI elements is more apparent in Virtual Reality.
Through the research and design development that I have done. I have come to the conclusion that there are two main types of UI in VR. Firstly UI which is physically based. This is UI that aims to mimic real interactions such as buttons, switches and handles. This UI is designed to fit within the game world but controls game menus or higher levels systems such as Settings, Load, Save and Exit Game. An example of this is Onward with its Helmet selector for choosing a team.
The helmet selector is a physical interaction that controls a menu interaction in Onward when the player performs the actions of picking up and placing the helmet upon their head it selects the team that they will be playing on. We can also see examples of non-diegetic UI in this image. the words "MARSOC" are floating UI elements that do not contain a context within the story of the game. It is used as an indicator along with the helmet to tell the user which team they are selecting.
Together these types of UI can be used improve the UX for the user. They can also be used to distinguish a change in environment in VR as well. Selecting the helmet is moving the player from the main navigation to the game world where they will be interacting with the environment in a more physical way. I plan on using this in my application as it will allow me to show the user the difference between being in a menu compared to being in a scenario. This is represented in the design style of my UI in the video below:
I chose to make my UI like this as it is a clean and simple UI to understand when a user is trying to develop their skills. Using a non-diegetic UI like this means that the user is not distracted by trying to learn how to interact with physical UI to change simple settings. It also maintains a professional look to the application and removes any elements that aim to Gamify the simulator.
Recent Feedback
Feedback from our latest problem based learning group has suggested that I also need to consider the diegetic of the environment that the main menu exists as their is a distinct and jarring difference between the UI and the environment. It is also unclear if the main menu can be loaded in a scenario which it cannot. A suggesting to change this is to place the main menu in an abstract environment so that the user can clear distinguish between a scenario and the main menu.
Conclusion
In conclusion it is clear that the concept of a diegetic is important when considering the design of UI in VR and as such it needs to be carefully considered in which direction to take the designs depending on the proposed target audience. In this case the audience is a group of professionals which want a no frills solution to improving the quality of first aid training and as such I have chosen to design the UI to reflect this and insure that it provides information over an integrate diegetic interface. In one of my next blog posts I will show the change in the main menu UI as it will be moved to a UI which doesn't take place in a physically representative room.
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