Tube Shape Settings
Team: Maker Team
Role: UX
Tools: Rec Room, Unity, Sigma, Amplitude, and Hex.
Results: Tube usability improved significantly across classes, workshops, and platforms, making them more accessible without the need for advanced tricks. Notably, iOS adoption grew, with top creators starting on mobile and later transitioning to VR.
Release: 2019 - 2020
Creators love tubes in Rec Room! It's their favorite shape. Why? Because tubes allow them to customize and create unique shapes. Found in the Maker Pen palette, tubes can be adjusted in settings for Tube Radius, Tube Height Scale, Tube Facets, and other preferences, giving creators more control over their shapes.
The Problem
Tubes were originally designed for VR creation mode, limiting their functionality on other platforms. As Rec Room expanded, creators outside of VR couldn’t use tube shapes as effectively. To address this, we aimed to improve the feature and scale its functionality across all platforms using existing tools.
Design Solution
By adding additional features, we improved the usability of tubes across all platforms, including VR. These improvements provided creators with more tools to add, delete, align nubs, and much more.
Expanded Tube Modifications: Creators can now modify and adjust tubes even after they’ve been created.
Improved Usability: Interaction with tubes has been streamlined for both new and experienced creators across all platforms.
Node Manipulation: Creators can add and remove nodes at any point, allowing for precise adjustments and easier manipulation of tube shapes post-drawing.
Intuitive Transform Tools: Existing transform tools now work seamlessly with tube nodes, maintaining their expected functionality.
Advanced Tube Features: Creators can connect both ends of a tube, split a tube into multiple segments, and smooth out tube shapes with additional options like position, rotation, and size adjustments.
Enhanced Selection and Interaction: Selecting tubes and nodes is now more predictable, with improved collision detection. Creators can clearly distinguish between interacting with a tube node versus the tube shape itself.
These updates also enable creators to move, rotate, and scale nodes, edit tube shapes, and easily add or remove nodes. I worked closely with developers to implement these changes, ensuring a more intuitive and flexible toolset for creators.
Measure Success
Tube Additions: We observed a significant increase in tube usability across classes, workshops, and the platform as a whole. The new features made tubes more accessible for both new and experienced creators, eliminating the need for advanced tricks or workarounds.
Platforms: Tube usability improved across all platforms, with notable growth among iOS creators. This led to some of our top creators starting on iOS and later onboarding to VR, further expanding their creative potential.
Release: 2019 - 2023
