Risks with forklifts

In this project, we developed a virtual reality experience focused on preventing accidents related to forklift operation. The goal was to expose users to realistic risk situations and help them understand how certain actions or safety violations could lead to an accident.

One of the first challenges was designing an environment that felt as realistic and recognizable as possible. To achieve this, I worked on the creation of the environment alongside the art department, collaborating closely on both the scenario design and the definition of the animations needed to make each situation feel believable.

This constant communication was key to refining every detail of the environment: spatial layout, common elements found in industrial areas, walkways, tools, and small visual details that help users feel as if they are actually inside their workplace. We were not aiming to create a generic setting, but rather an experience that users could recognize and connect with real-life situations.

During testing sessions, many users specifically highlighted how similar the environment felt to their own workplaces. This helped increase immersion and made the risks presented feel like realistic and possible situations.

The second major challenge of the project was finding a way to represent accidents in an impactful way without creating a negative user experience. Since the scenarios involved falls and impacts, showing them from a first-person perspective could cause discomfort or motion sickness in virtual reality, especially during sudden movements.

To solve this, we changed the perspective: instead of experiencing the accident through the protagonist’s eyes, we decided to represent it from a third-person view. This allowed users to observe the situation from the outside, understand what was happening, and analyze the factors that caused the accident without making the experience uncomfortable.

After each scene, users had to identify the mistakes, risks, or safety violations that had led to the situation. This transformed the experience into more than a simple visual demonstration: it required users to pay attention, analyze the environment, and connect actions with their consequences.

The result was a more comfortable, realistic, and effective experience, where virtual reality was used not only to show an accident but also to help users understand why it happened and how it could be prevented. This project was a great example of how environment design, cross-team collaboration, and interaction decisions can work together to create an immersive learning experience.