Google Cardboard
Improving the User Experience
Google is the world’s leading search engine, processing more than 3.5 billion queries a day. Beyond that, the internet giant recently expanded into the exploration of virtual reality (VR). Their product, Google Cardboard, is a simplified, low-cost system that allows users to convert their phones into VR headsets. Google asked Grain & Mortar to update portions of the Cardboard website to improve the user experience.
Help Manufacturers Help Themselves
Google Cardboard is a platform that allows people to manufacture their own VR headsets. A manufacturer enters data via an online form, and Google generates a unique QR code that enables the headset to be compatible with VR apps.
Our challenge was to update the series of pages that walked manufacturers through the steps to configure their headset’s QR code and to modify the design, copy, and functionality enough to clarify the user experience while staying within the boundaries of the Cardboard brand.
Streamlined and Unified
Our solution began with design modifications. We consolidated pages, softened hard edges, and tidied up text in an effort to create a more pleasant visual experience and clarify information.
Focus on Usability
User diagrams were improved by adding color to draw attention to key information.
Basic and Instinctual
Through design and development modifications, we were able to make the viewer profile generator form more intuitive and, as a result, more functional. We used Angular JS and Firebase to make required updates and correct some bugs.
Humanize Everything
Small modifications, such as adding a “Success” message on the results page, allowed us to humanize the process, as well as provide users with a stronger indication of where they were in the process.
A Note from the Creative Director
This was the first open-source project we collaborated on. We worked with a small team within Google, and it was a highly collaborative experience. It’s refreshing to work with the best, challenge ourselves, and benefit from the perspective of people who live and breath engineering and this particular technology.
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