New Feature Spotlight:
User Input Screen (aka “Add User ID”)
One of our newest features is perhaps one of the most valuable — the “User Input Screen” add-on found in the Branding section of the Console.
Users of your apps can identify themselves prior to the VR experience loading. This could be their name, a User ID you give them, a special identifying number. The only requirement is that it has to be either letters, numbers, or a combination thereof.
It also works on all the major VR platforms that we publish to, including iOS, Android, Web, and Oculus outputs.
Why is this feature so powerful? Combined with our App Usage Analytics (aka Reports), you’ll now have *specific* information on who used your app, when they used it, what device they used, what scenes/hotspots they engaged with, and more.
If you’re creating a training app, a sales app, a research app — you now have access to some very important data. This will help you to gauge both your VR experiences and your users. App analytics just became that much more powerful with the new User Input Screen!
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How Do I Add a User Input Screen to My VR App?
A.) Log into your InstaVR console
B.) Click the Branding icon on the left side of your project
C.) Click the “Add” button on the bottom to see additional Add-on Screens
D. ) Click the “Add” button in the exact middle, under the User Input Screen icon
E.) *Optional* The field in your app will default to saying “User ID”. You can change that out and customize it to whatever you’d like, such as “Name”
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What data points does InstaVR collect?
Whatever the user types into that field prior to the VR app loading — provided the user’s headset is connected to WiFi or Mobile Data — will be passed into our analytics system.
For instance… if you ask for “Name”, and the user types “John Smith” into the field, our system will then be able to associate all actions of the user to that name in our Reports section.
How do I view the inputted information and actions taken by the user?
- Open your InstaVR Console
- For the relevant project, click on Report icon in the lower left hand corner
- In your customized Success Report, towards the right side, you’ll find a field called “Input Data.” If a user inputted their name/ID/whatever you ask them, and the device has Internet access, that field will be populated with their info for the remainder of their VR session analytics. (see below screenshot)
- (Optional) If you export the Report to a CSV file, that field will also be retained and appear in the CSV. You can then, for instance, arrange all lines in the CSV in alphabetical order by User.
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What do I do with this data?
There’s so much you can do with this data. Here are three simple examples we’ve seen from InstaVR users:
Employee Hiring and Training Assessments – You can correlate actions within a VR environment to the user who took them. For instance, if you were screening potential firefighter candidates, you could ask them to identify three potential fire hazards within a scene. Using the Reports analytics, you can see which candidates correctly identified the three Hotspots located over fire dangers, and which did not.
Similarly, you can use Hotspots to create Questions & Answers within the VR environment (aka “Quizzes”). Quiz answers can now be correctly attributed to the users who chose them.
User Research – In lieu of a name, you can use the User Input section to capture information on the specific user, be it age/sex/income/marital status/etc. Then, looking at the analytics across all users of specific demographics, view interesting VR behavioral data (and decisions). For instance, given a virtual retail environment, you might find younger users prefer one layout, while older users prefer another, presuming you ask for their Age at the User Input screen. This reactionary data from users is likely to be more precise than if you ask their opinions afterwards.
Sales Lead Capture – If you’re at a trade show or event, you can have users enter their name or email into the User Input space prior to the VR app loading. Then see specifically which Scenes or Hotspots they spent the most time exploring. On follow up communications, you’ll be able to specifically reference an area that was of interest to them. For instance, a car maker can send a follow up email on exactly the car model the user chose within the VR headset.
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What are specific job use cases for this data?
Again, there’s too many to name. But we’ll focus on three of the more popular ones:
Learning & Development (or HR / Training/ Recruiting) – People in these type of jobs can gather a lot more precise information if they have the user’s name who took specific actions. If a certain type of employee, like a new hire, consistently makes the same error in your VR environment, you’ll know you need to focus more trainings on new hires.
Academic (or Researchers or Professors) – Some of our most innovative and advanced InstaVR users are in the field of Academia. Why? They like to push technology into new use cases. With so much interest in VR, you can now much more precisely track user behavior data in a VR environment with the User Input screen. You no longer have to only look at aggregated data across users. You can Segment and be much more precise in your research findings.
Sales/Marketing – Obviously this can be used for lead capture. But it can also be used as a sales follow up tool… you can see A.) If the user received, opened, and used the VR app(s) that you sent them and B.) What they were interested in. This will validate the use of VR within your sales cycles, but also give you more precise data on your prospect for your real-world marketing endeavors to them. No longer do you have to just blindly hope they looked at your app you sent them.
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Conclusion –
This User Input field is a game changer!
We now have direct data on specific users that can be very impactful to you. You can see which of your potential hires scored the best in a simulated VR environment, which users accurately finished your VR Trainings you’ve invested so much time in building, which sales prospects actually responded to the VR apps your marketing teams authored and sent to them.
And you can act upon the data! Be it giving out the job offer, re-training a segment of employees, or sending just the right follow-up email.
The Analytics feature we added to InstaVR already gives you a ton of information you likely can’t get from any other VR provider. But now you can correlate that analytic data to specific individuals. This closes the information loop, making your VR that much more powerful.
Let us know what you think of the new User Input feature in InstaVR!
