Test the First Minute With Three Strangers

Every demo works when the people who built it are the ones playing.

We know where to stand and which button starts it. We fix the headset strap without thinking. So the build passes every check we give it, and we call it ready.

Then a stranger walks up.

So What's the Problem?

On an empty floor, the path is clean. On opening night there's a queue behind the guest, and nobody has told them where to stand.

The part we test least is the first minute. That's when a guest either works out what to do or turns around to ask a staff member.

A green build only means the software ran. It can't tell you whether a stranger knew what to do once the headset went on, or whether they took out their phone the first time nothing was happening.

Same with the deck and the poster. Polishing them feels like progress (I'm as guilty as anyone). But if a guest spends their first minute stuck at the entrance, a nicer deck won't help them.

What's the Solution?

Before you call it ready, test the first minute with three people who have never seen it.

Find three people who didn't build it and haven't read the brief.
Start a phone timer when they reach the entrance, or pick up the headset.
Don't coach them. Staff say nothing, and neither do you.
Write down every question they ask before they know what to do.
Note the moment they take out their phone, if they do.

A WeAReVR Jozi meetup, October 2019. A visitor sits in a VR headset with its cables hanging down, while someone stands beside them smiling and other guests talk in the background.

That list of questions is your next round of work. Spend the next hour on it before you touch the deck.

NB: If you can't find strangers yet, walk it yourself first. Stand where a guest stands and wait through the first moment when nothing is telling you what to do.

What Would I Test on Glass Angels?

Take Glass Angels, the VR piece set in the Owl House in Nieu-Bethesda that we showed at Fak'ugesi this month.

A visitor wearing the mosaic owl headset holds two Quest controllers at the Glass Angels stand at Fak'ugesi. Behind them, a screen mirrors the view inside the headset, with candles and the words "is a direct threat to the survival". An owl sculpture with glowing green eyes sits on a mosaic plinth to the left, and other festival-goers stand around in the background.

Inside the piece, Julia Malgas opens from a video on the moon and hands you the lantern. After that, you walk through the house at night and light 59 candles, one at a time.

For a stranger, the first minute starts before any of that. It starts at the stand, with a mosaic owl strapped to their face and a busy festival floor behind them. So these are the questions I'd listen for:

Do they know what the lantern is for?
Do they find the first candle without help?
Do they look to the person who handed them the headset, and when?
Do they take the headset off early?

Whatever they ask out loud goes on the list.

What's Next?

I want more strangers. Specifically, ones who make things.

WeAReVR is a community of more than 250 XR creators in Johannesburg, and most of them have never seen your build. That makes them good strangers. ;)

A WeAReVR Jozi meetup in 2019. A visitor in a VR headset reaches out with one hand while a crowd stands around them watching, some of them smiling.

In-person nights are paused for now, but the chat is open. Join at wearevrjozi.org, and when meetups are back, bring your build. Ask three people to play your first minute while you say nothing and take notes.

Then let me know what your three strangers asked.

Virtually yours, Deac