Independent Studies

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During this module, I worked independently with my supervisor to research, design, and produce an office application for use in Virtual Reality (VR). The goal of this project was to determine whether specialising the user interface for VR would show a performance improvement compared to the typical desktop interface. 

The purpose of this was to provide additional research into the feasibility of productivity-focused applications such as word processing applications for usage in future virtual workspaces such as virtual offices. 

The primary benefit of this would be increased separation between work and the rest of the user's life. This would improve quality of life, reduce stress and therefore improve employee retention rates. Currently, this area is not developed enough to provide a tangible improvement in productivity, or even meet the same level of productivity currently found by employees with desktop workstations. 

This project was an interesting challenge as I learnt how to effectively conduct research and manage a project independently to meet deadlines. I had previous project planning experience in isolation however, in this project I was able to both manage and produce simultaneously. 

Additionally, this was my first experience working within Unity Engine which provided additional challenges and eventually led to project delays due to my inexperience with the engine at the time of project conception. 

Nonetheless, the project was a marginal success and I learnt a lot from this process.  

Sadly, I am unable to provide the release version of the application that was produced as part of this module as it includes assets owned by the University of Derby that I am not licenced to distribute. 

Instead, please find below a copy of my dissertation.