User Testing Subtitles for 360° Content

Back in March we talked about the challenges of designing subtitle behaviours for 360° video content. We explained some of the challenges that arise and described four behaviours that we had implemented for testing. We have now completed the testing and analysed the results, and it’s fair to say that we have been slightly surprised. So, what did we find?

Appear In Front, Then Fixed

(Each subtitle is placed in the scene in the direction you are looking at the time when it appears and remains fixed in that location in the scene until it disappears.)

Although this worked in some scenes, in others it left people confused and unable to follow the subtitles. The essential problem was that when people are having a quick look around a scene, the subtitles get placed part way through a head movement, and these positions are unpredictable to the viewer and not easy to relocate. The end result was that people either missed out on the subtitles and looked around the scene, or read the subtitles and missed out on looking around.

Tagged as: , ,

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *