Futures Lab #184: Wall Street Journal’s Daydream VR App

Experiencing the WSJ inside a virtual 3-D environment.

The Wall Street Journal recently launched a VR app that allows users to experience the Journal in immersive 3-D in Google’s Daydream platform. The app is one of the first to deliver news and live market data inside a virtual 3-D environment. We speak with Himesh Patel, Dow Jones creative director, and Roger Kenny, design tech lead for VR at the Wall Street Journal, about how the app came together.

Reporting by Reuben Stern, Rachel Wise and Gabe Dubois

• The Wall Street Journal debuted its Daydream VR app in November.
• The app is available on Google Play. To experience the app, users need Daydream View, the headset and controller, and a Daydream-ready phone, such as Pixel or Pixel XL.
• If you want to get a sense of the app but don’t have access to a Daydream headset, you catch watch this video walk-through.
• The Wall Street Journal partnered with architecture firm Michaelis Boyd Associates to design the virtual-reality penthouse environment for the app.

Rachel Wise is an editor at the Futures Lab at the Reynolds Journalism Institute and co-producer of the weekly Futures Lab video update.

The Reynolds Journalism Institute’s Futures Lab video update features a roundup of fresh ideas, techniques and developments to help spark innovation and change in newsrooms across all media platforms. Visit the RJI website for the full archive of Futures Lab videos, or download the iPad app to watch the show wherever you go. You can also sign up to receive email notification of each new episode.