Play to Improve: Gamifying Usability Evaluations in Virtual Reality

Abstract

Objective: The research study focuses on evaluating how usability engineering related activities would look like in virtual reality from an exploratory point of view. Research questions for the study are: a) What quantitative impact does an environment have on the usability evaluation of software interface components? b) How is this impact different in virtual environment as compared to physical environment? c) What could be the best interaction design representation in virtual reality which could have a similar mental model for the users as having a mouse and keyboard in physical environment? d) What role does another user/a virtual mannequin and other elements/objects play on influencing the usability evaluation results in virtual reality? Background: As per ISO 62366 and Food and drugs administration (FDA) guidelines, simulating usage environment when evaluating software components is crucial. However, with conventional lab environment usability testing sessions have no environment simulated in it. The research focuses on how the transition path (moving from physical to virtual environment) would look like if a researcher wants to thoroughly evaluate a design concept in virtual reality. Method: Participants (N = 8) participated in the experiment to evaluate 3 interaction design concepts in virtual reality (1) gaze timer: seeing the virtual monitor for 3 s to go to the next page in the workflow, (2) gaze click: seeing the virtual monitor and using controller to aim and go to the next page in the workflow, and (3) gaze gesture: seeing the virtual monitor and using controller to pick-drag-drop a page in the workflow stack to another location. The three interaction design concepts varied in physical workload, cognitive workload, familiarity, learning curve and readability. The experiment design was a within subject design. Results: Participants preferred gaze click interaction design concept over gaze timer and gaze gesture concept. Conclusion: Having a virtual environment added to a conventional lab/physical environment, transition could be possible. Replacement of controls like mouse and keyboard could be done by adding gaze click interaction. Application: Results of the study could serve as providing design guidelines for simulation of software interfaces’ usability evaluation in virtual reality.