Development and heuristic evaluation of semi-immersive hand-gestural virtual reality interface for luxury brands online stores

Abstract

This paper introduces HCI design approach for an online shopping gestural-based interface. The proposed semi-immersive Virtual Reality (VR) interface aims to elevate the user experience in such indirect environment, where effective delivering of functional yet distinguishable experience effectively is crucial. The system comprises product customisation and personalization service, in which the product is visualized in a three-dimensional highly interactive manner. The level of flexibility and realism of the aforementioned system and its impact on the experience presents new prospects for e-commerce systems, particularly for luxury markets. A preliminary heuristic evaluation was conducted by HCI experts prior to user trials to uncover potential usability issues. The heuristic session’s outcome emphasised valuable components and design aspects within the system with regards to the system functionality, visualisation and interaction quality. Some factors and design issues for optimising and further enhancing the system were also highlighted.