Core Principles for Hand Controller Design

Most of the things could be done with one hand only.
It is hard to remember which buttons are A/B, and which are X/Y so within the Morpheus XR metaverse, we have configured both sets of buttons to work the same.
We don’t need to reconfigure controllers for left- and right-handed people.
While holding something in one hand, users are still able to use something else in other.

Mapping of the Basic VR Controls

Function	Control	Reasoning
Jumping and rotating	Thumbstick	All spatial controls are connected to thumbstick. Thumbstick is often used for movement in games, but also in some cars and motorized wheelchairs.
Picking up and holding	Grip button	When an object is selected, pressing and holding Grip will always result in holding the object in the hand. Releasing the grip will return the object to its passive behaviour: falling down for Grabbable, floating for all other functions.
Using and interacting	Trigger	We force each artifact to have exactly one function that is activated, toggled, triggered, turned on/off by trigger button. E.g., · Microphone is turned on/off. · Timer is started/paused. · Spotlight shoots the ray of light. · Gong plays the ‘chime’ sound. · Content Display shows the HUD menu
A/X buttons	Mute on/off	Mute directly operates with hardware (turns the audio input on/off) thus it has its own hardware button, which is the bottom one of the round buttons.
B/Y buttons	HUD on/off	HUD is a universal and omnipresent concept that introduces additional ‘smart’ layer of objects before users’s eyes. It is as close to hardware as it could be, thus having a dedicated button as well.

Function	Controls and examples	Reasoning
Resizing objects	Grab an object with both hands and move them closer/farther from each other.	This behaviour mimics how ‘rubber’ objects are resized.
Gestures	E.g., raise two hands up to cheer.	We keep the amount of gestures to minimum, make them distinctive, and mimic real-life gesturing. For mobile, we add on-screen buttons.
Context-dependent controls	Context-dependent controls are rendered in HUD and allow for complex interactions like: · Flipping slides of the presentation · Arranging furniture · Setting up timers · Gathering people around	Context should be clearly visible, so users won’t need to remember which mode they are currently in. Being a visual layer, HUD helps with that. Moving all smart context-dependent controls to HUD removes them from the ‘physical’ layer which becomes more real and believable.