Overview
Team
❖ One Developer
❖ Three artists
❖ One lead UX Researcher(me)
My key contributions
❖ UX Research
❖ Project Management
❖ 3D Modeler
Process❖ Define problem
❖ Initial test
❖ Prototype & Implement
❖ Validation test
Tools used
❖ Oculus 2
❖ Horizon Worlds
❖ Discord
🌱 The Problem
Users (players of the Horizon Worlds VR app), don't return to the VR experience. Many users don't complete the experiences before losing interest.
📈 Results
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🔑 Research -> Solutions
My research indicated 3 strong features about player engagement and replayability:
(1) Replayability hinges on variety: enemies, weapons, level pacing. As a result, weapon variety was introduced, distinct atmospheres, and a progression system → 95% decrease in early drop-offs.
Below are examples of enemy and weapon variation I created which were adopted to the released experience:
(2) Mission clarity improves with spatial and audio cues. As a result, spatial audio cues for battles, and puzzle progression were added → 87% of players reached the final area.
Below are examples of a puzzle area where my recommended spatial and audio cues were adopted into the released experience:
(3) Player delight is born from unexpected object interactivity. As a result, interactable objects, and unique enemy behaviors were designed → 90% rated the experience as memorable.
Below are examples of areas where my recommendation of object interaction and NPC/enemy behavior were adopted to the releaesed experience:
🧪 UX Process
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Based on the team's timeline and goals I chose an iterative process where user interviews were used to create a persona, understand user frustrations, desires, and what causes joy. I later ran usability tests across developement phases to ensure target goals are being met.
💡 Design Thinking
Players were dropping off — and the team knew it. But understanding why required getting into the mind of players.
I started with user interviews in order to build a picture of what players actually wanted from a VR experience: variety, a sense of progress, and moments that felt genuinely surprising. From there, I identified three core drivers of engagement — replayability, clarity, and delight — and used them as a lens for every design decision that followed.
Replayability, I found, hinges on variety. Not just visual variety, but mechanical variety — different weapons, different atmospheres, a sense that the world rewards you for coming back. Clarity came down to reducing cognitive friction: players weren't failing because the game was hard, they were disengaging because they didn't know what to do next. Spatial audio became one of my most effective tools here — guiding players through battles and puzzle progression without ever breaking immersion.
Delight was the hardest to design for, and the most rewarding. The moments players remembered most weren't the big set pieces — they were the unexpected ones. An enemy that attacked differently. An object that responded when you touched it. These small interactions created a feeling of aliveness that kept players curious.
Each phase of testing sharpened these decisions. What started as hypotheses became validated design choices. The results spoke for themselves; 95% decrease in early drop-offs. 87% of players reached the final area and indicated they'd replay the experience. 90% rated the experience as memorable.
🤝 Working with the team
Initially, I held a meeting with the team to discuss their vision for the world and expected needs of the project. I also facilitated the creation of a map (very similar to wireframing in traditional UI Design), to breakdown the project into 'areas' we can encapsulate to their own mechanics, tasks, and atmosphere. Each 'area' held a list of level design ideas and goals. The map served two goals:
(1) To keep myself and the team aligned on the function and events tied to each area
(2) To help the team use a design behavior perspective as we continually update the map with new/changing design decisions.
🚧 Project Blockers
(1) World object capacity: I learned to rebuilt assets using low-weight objects, acting as optimization dev.
(2)Platform scripting bugs: Paused relevant testing and shifted to design tasks until scripting bugs were fixed by the team at Meta.
💡 Learnings
❖ Live playtesting is invaluable for understanding player behavior in immersive media
❖ Creative experimentation—especially with enemy design—drives replayability
❖ Gained deep 3D modeling and lighting experience in Horizon Worlds
❖ Reinforced the power of collaborative iteration and VR-first UX thinking
Want to see more of my work?
If you like what you see and want to work together, get in touch!
alicia.marisal@gmail.com
