What Web Design Can Learn from Virtual Reality

      

No matter what techniques and approaches you use, web design is all about making an impression on the user and bringing them closer to the brand. Indeed, far from being a mere information portal, a website constitutes an entire experience – and the more engaging you can make it, the better. Whilst responsive web design has had a huge hand in making the web more interactive, it may be about to go up a notch. Virtual reality has long been transforming a whole host of industries, from healthcare and gaming to education and training – and it seems that web design could be next.

Virtual Reality: A huge opportunity for branding

First and foremost, VR engineers and web designers have more in common than you might think. Virtual reality seeks to transport the user to another dimension, bringing them as close to an experience as possible without physically being there. Equally, web designers make use of mesmerizing visuals and engaging content to enable the user to really connect with the brand. Although the aforementioned responsive design has made it increasingly easier for webmasters to capture their audience, VR takes this even further – think 3D instead of 2D, real-time interactions and a totally immersive, 360° experience. By applying the principles of VR to the web, designers are presented with a remarkable opportunity to convey their message more profoundly than ever before.

VR for the web: How does it work?

Even though virtual reality is not something you come across too often in day-to-day browsing, it is certainly making inroads. Up until recently, VR has been most predominantly linked to gaming, with the major tech players focusing primarily on native apps for the mobile market. However, the potential of VR for the web has not gone unnoticed, with initiatives like WebVR aiming to make it possible to access virtual reality devices through a wide range of browsers. Whilst this project itself is a work in progress, some pioneering brands have wasted no time in using browser-based VR to their advantage. Take an adult entertainment site such as AliceX, for example; using the latest web technologies, they have been able to create a totally immersive, 360° virtual reality cam experience that runs in your Android smartphone web browser – without the need for an app.

In much the same fashion, web designers can use VR to create a seamless, in-browser experience that connects users and brands in the most extraordinary way. With Vizor being a case of making it possible to create and publish VR content to the web, Virtual Reality could well represent a major turning point in the way we design, browse and experience the internet.

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