One of the proudest moments in my career to date, originally dubbed 'Project P' (working title), was a VR experience (built in Unreal) aimed at illuminating the everyday challenges faced by disabled individuals.
Taking on the roles of design lead, art director, and concept artist, I steered the creative vision and visual progression of the project. Additionally, I also crafted the narrative which framed the project.
Periodicly at Somo we were encouraged to focus some of our time and effort into projects that we feel passionate about, and problems that we wish to solve. In doing so we were nurturing Somo’s culture of Innovation and were able to sharpen our skills by creating exciting meaningful products. This project was very much my passion project.
The majority of people are unaware of Parkinson’s many serious symptoms, There are many common traits of Parkinson’s but the extent of the condition is vast. If you take some of the symptoms one by one, they may not seem particularly serious, for example ‘A blank facial expression’ seems fairly innocuous.
However what happens when you Mix a few of these symptoms? Well if you Take ‘A blank facial expression’ and add ‘Slurred speech’ along with a ‘Postural instability' The average uninformed person may suddenly see a drunk. This is an assumption that may completely change how they treat this person.
That’s not very pleasant, but probably not life threatening. But if we then take Postural instability in conjunction with the tendency to freeze in place, you Suddenly have a person that could fall and seriously injure themselves at any time. It was scenarios such as these that we wished to address.
The Doctors, scientists and specialists know all the symptoms and medical side of Parkinson’s. but they don’t how it feels.
They don't know fow frustrating it is
Ron Alder
My stepdad and Parkinsons sufferer for over 15 years
Drawing from experience caring for my stepfather (who lived with Parkinsons for over 15 years), I led a small team that created an immersive experience that aimed to digitally project symptoms onto non sufferers, using virtual reality hardware.
As the projects lead I actively participated in carers' meetings at the Worthing branch of Parkinson's UK. Furthermore, I was fortunate enough to present the concept to the Worthing branch of Parkinson's UK, engaging in discussions and addressing inquiries from club members, including individuals living with Parkinson's, The accounts of those kind enough to talk to me was invaluable.
The structure of the narrative was going to be crucial to the experience. As the centre of the story was going to be the user, the characterisation needed to be fully realised. Using character development exercises outlined it the books 'Save the Cat' By Blake Snyder, Lisa Crons 'Story Genius' and aligning their methods with 'The Heros Journey' I was able to outline a number of scenes that somewhat mirrored the experience of my step father. Each of these scenes would address different aspects of living with the condition.
Parkinsons has a many common traits that manifest physically. While the core idea of the experience would see a user seeing the world through the eyes of a Parkinsons sufferer there was still a need to show the physicality of the character. Focussing on posture, physical rigidity and facial paralysis seemed like a sensible place to start.
Physical symptoms such as tremors would be relatively easy to recreate, However it would be the lesser known symptoms such as a lowered speaking voice, and slow slurred speech that would be more difficult to conceptualise. A potential way to address this would be to include supporting characters that would react with our central character, However introducing dialogue would be its own challenge.
Addressing movement would be another hurdle. How does one recreate a short shuffling gait, or postural instability when the user is most likely able bodied. We considered a number of solutions to address this. For example we could try and manipulate the physics of the VR environment or perhaps we could make the user wear a restrictive harness. Each possibility had it's pros and cons. Therefore for our initial concept we made the strategic decision to keep the user in a stationary position.
Storyboarding for VR also has it's own challenges. With traditional video we are able to force the user to focus on specific areas of the scene to drive the narrative forward. When the user can explore a full 360 environment special care and attention must be made to ensure that focus was drawn to the interactive elements of the scene.
Due to our budget and resource allocation, We needed to be realistic about the level of animation within the experience. Therefore sections of the story that would link the interactive scenes would need to be presented as static scenes of the characters with the minimum of props. This would be an effective strategy to streamline the development process while maintaining the users focus within the VR environment.
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When styling the environment we initially decided upon a stripped back low poly approach as this would be a stylistic choice that many of the team appreciated. The fact that low poly models are easier to create at speed was an added bonus. Unfortunately when compiled in our test scene the overall effect lacked impact. Nor did it feel like a suitable environment for our character. We went back to the drawing board, by adopting a more realistic style we were able to address these concerns. subconsciously creating an environment incredibly similat to the one that my step dad had spent so much time inhabiting.
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After speaking with members living with Parkinson's at the Parkinsons UK Worthing Branch, it became evident that certain terminologies we were using were outdated. This experience led me to realise that, despite my family's familiarity with the condition, my understanding of the Parkinson's community was narrower than I had initially thought. If the project were to be embraced by the community this would need to be addressed.
Initially, we chose to develop an experience for the HTC Vive, which presented challenges due to hardware limitations in achieving our desired outcomes. We contemplated using wearable tech to physically restrict users' movements, but this approach would have confined the project's reach to curated installations. Another option was to replicate physical limitations using the HTC 'Wands,' but this proved to be exceedingly challenging.
Despite the HTC Vive's cutting-edge technology at the time, it was not widely accessible to a mass audience. Therefore, in assessing the project's reach, we decided to adopt a scaled-back approach to ensure broader reach beyond exclusive installations, this seemed to be a smarter choice.
We developed a functional Stage 1 prototype illustrating the difficulties of executing a basic task with limited dexterity. This prototype served as the initial segment of a series of 'scenes,' aimed at shedding light on the experience of living with the disability.
I was proud to present our initial conceptual work to a team from Parkinsons UK and more importantly to over 100 carers/people living with parkinsons at the worthing support centre.
Unfortunately with the advent of Covid 19 the project was paused due to logistal issues. However as this project is deeply personal I hope to resume development of the concept in the future.
• Securing buy in from the agency to develop the concept.
• Leading the design vision of the project as art director, and concept artist, guiding the creative direction and visual development.
• Developing the narrative which framed the project.
• Actively participating in carers' meetings at the Worthing branch of Parkinson's UK.
• Presenting project progress to the Worthing branch of Parkinson's UK,
• engaging in discussions and addressing inquiries from club members, including individuals living with Parkinson's.
• Presenting the project to Parkinsons UK National head office
