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Master’s in Virtual Reality: Feedback by C. Le Marc, Student-Designer
Céline Le Marc graduated from L’École de design Nantes Atlantique on November 6, 2009. In this interview she explains her final degree project "CoLabs" carried out as part of the Master’s Program in Virtual Reality. This course is part of a double cuccirculum whereby students simultaneously prepare for a Master’s Degree in Virtual Engineering and Innovation issued by Arts et Métiers ParisTech (French higher education institution specializing in mechanical and industrial engineering) in Laval, France.
Why did you choose to attend the Master’s Program in Virtual Reality in your 5th year of study?
Céline Le Marc: Though the application I have developed for my final degree project was not originally designed to be supported by an immersive 3D such as the SAS cube, I still thought it would be interesting – as an interaction designer – to become acquainted with the notion of immersion, or "presence," when related to virtual reality issues.
What exactly is the SAS cube ?
Céline Le Marc: The SAS cube is an immersive cube-shaped room (3 m x 3 m) whose faces and floor are made of screens. More information about this tool can be found on the website of Clarté, the innovation center dedicated to virtual and augmented realities who masterminded the device.
Did you and your fellow students have difficulties adjusting to taking classes in another institution?
Céline Le Marc: Not so much because we addressed issues with which we were already familiar as we had encountered them when working on design projects. We asked ourselves this pretty straightforward question: how to create intuitive applications and guide users so they appropriate new systems easily, especially via sense-based feedback, for instance?
How did you like this double curriculum?
Céline Le Marc: I am glad I chose the Master’s program in Virtual Reality. Following the research-oriented Master’s degree IVI helped me see my final degree project in a new light. Indeed, I realized the importance of buttressing my personal analysis with scientific sources. Engrossed in a research environment I could more easily appraise my topic’s academic value and point out accurately which of my choices actually induced innovation and how. This course enabled me to meet new faculty, other than my teachers at L’École de design, and to open up to a variety of new opinions about design and to new working methods..
Where did you do your final-year internship? What was your line of work there?
Céline Le Marc: I did 2 three-month internships in 2 game development studios. The first one I did at Angoulême-based studio Ouat Entertainment, and the second one at Phoenix Interactive, in Lyon. By combining Two trainee experiences I could get a glimpse of two company management styles and two radically different ways to handle video-games. During my intership at Ouat Entertainment I took part in designing a serious game meant to introduce middle-school goers to the business world, this task gave me quite a deep insight into game design. I co-wrote game design-related documents to define the nature, the form and types of interaction that best suited the game’s objectives. I also created the first gaming interfaces with a view to developing the project further in the future.
Phoenix Interactive, where I did my second internship, hired me to highlight how interaction design complements game design and "user-centered research." I worked out innovative gesture-based interactions and instruction guides for designers developing Wii-compatible games. During this mission I learned to tackle interaction design-oriented research in a new way, starting from a system’s technical specificities.
What are your plans for the future?
Céline Le Marc: I am looking for a job in the field of research and developement, more specifically "user-centered research," which I had the oppurtunity to try out during my internship at Phoenix Interactive.
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Useful links:
Presence & Innovation Lab, Arts et Métiers ParisTech Angers
