In the last few years, there has been an increase in the popularity of Virtual Reality (VR) technology. Nevertheless, it is still very uncommon to see this kind of technology used in daily contexts other than home-usage. As VR devices became all-in-one solutions (no need for external hardware), this technology can be potentially used everywhere. Notwithstanding, the presence of unaware observers in the surrounding area might influence the User Experience (UX) and create concerns about social acceptability, which is the phenomenon of judging a technology introduced in the future from comfort or discomfort of both the performer and the observers. The user acts in the so-called Social Environment (SE), which can be defined as an environment characterised by the spatial layout and by the people being there (number of people, their proximity, their behaviour). Depending on the VR experience played, the tasks might require a different degree of interactivity defined by the required range of body movements and level of interaction with the controllers. In this thesis, the influence of Social Environment, and the degree of interactivity of VR applications on User Experience and social acceptability is investigated. An experimental environment has been created to assess possible relations between these variables utilising a virtual environment in which four different scales of Social Environments (One Distant Person, Few Distant Persons, Few Close Persons, Many Close Persons) obtained employing 360° Videos in VR to vary the number of people, their proximity, their behaviour were simulated, and two different VR games with a low (static) and high (dynamic) level of interactivity were required to be played. The combination of these creates eight different experimental conditions (Social Environment-degree of interactivity). It was therefore performed a user study including 28 participants who assessed each experimental condition using a questionnaire-based methodology for data collection. A two-way repeated measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) has been performed on the results of the questionnaires to get information on the effect of Social Environments and interactivity on UX and social acceptability. Results showed a statistically significant influence of the scale of Social Environments on Overall UX, Public VR acceptability, Interaction acceptability, Isolation acceptability, Privacy acceptability and Safety acceptability and statistically significant influence of the degree of interactivity on Presence, Valence, Arousal, Overall UX, UX Hedonic quality and Safety acceptability. The results of the study indicate that Social Environments and degree of interactivity are dimensions that should be taken into account while designing VR applications, towards a faster and more successful application and adoption in daily contexts.
La popolarità della realtà virtuale (VR) ha subito un incremento negli ultimi anni. Ciononostante, questo tipo di tecnologia è raramente utilizzato in contesti quotidiani diversi dall'uso domestico. Poiché i dispositivi VR sono diventati soluzioni complete (senza alcun bisogno di hardware esterno), questa tecnologia può potenzialmente essere utilizzata ovunque. Tuttavia, la presenza di altre persone nell'area circostante potrebbe influenzare la User Experience (UX) e creare preoccupazioni riguardo l'accettazione sociale, ovvero il fenomeno del giudicare l'introduzione futura di una tecnologia secondo lo stato di agio o disagio creato all'utilizzatore e agli osservatori. L'utente agisce nel cosiddetto Ambiente Sociale, che può essere definito come un ambiente caratterizzato dalla sua disposizione spaziale e dalle persone in esso presenti (numero di persone, la loro vicinanza, il loro comportamento). A seconda dell'esperienza VR che si sta vivendo, i task possono richiedere un diverso grado di interattività definito dalla quantità richiesta in termini di movimento del corpo e grado di interazione con i controllers. In questa tesi si indaga l'influenza dell'Ambiente Sociale e del grado di interattività delle applicazioni VR sulla User Experience e sulla accettazione sociale. Per valutare eventuali relazioni tra queste variabili è stato creato un ambiente sperimentale in cui sono state simulate utilizzando un ambiente virtuale, quattro diverse scale dell'Ambiente Sociale (una sola persona lontana, poche persone lontane, poche persone vicine, molte persone vicine) variando numero di persone, la loro vicinanza, e il loro comportamento utilizzando video a 360° in VR, e due diversi giochi VR che richiedono bassi (statici) o alti (dinamici) livelli di interattività. La combinazione di questi due fattori crea otto diverse condizioni sperimentali (Ambiente Sociale - grado di interattività). È stato quindi svolto uno studio che ha coinvolto 28 partecipanti, i quali hanno valutato ogni condizione sperimentale utilizzando metodi basati su questionari per la raccolta dei dati. È stata effettuata un'analisi a due fattori della varianza con misurazioni ripetute (ANOVA) sui i risultati dei questionari, per ottenere informazioni sull'effetto dell'Ambiente Sociale e dell'interattività sulla UX e sull'accettazione sociale. I risultati hanno mostrato un'influenza statisticamente significativa della scala dell'Ambiente Sociale sulla UX generale, sull'accettazione dell'utilizzo del VR in pubblico, sull'accettazione del tipo di interazione, l'accettazione dell'isolamento, della privacy e l'accettazione della sicurezza. Per quanto concerne il grado di interattività è stata riscontrata significatività statistica su senso di presenza, la valenza, l'eccitazione, la UX totale, la qualità edonica della UX e l'accettazione della sicurezza. I risultati dello studio suggeriscono che l'Ambiente Sociale e il grado di interattività sono dimensioni che dovrebbero essere prese in considerazione nella progettazione di app per VR al fine di ottenere un'applicazione e un'adozione più rapida e di successo di questa tecnologia in contesti quotidiani.
Influence of interactivity and social environments on user experience and social acceptability in virtual reality
Vergari, Maurizio
2019/2020
Abstract
In the last few years, there has been an increase in the popularity of Virtual Reality (VR) technology. Nevertheless, it is still very uncommon to see this kind of technology used in daily contexts other than home-usage. As VR devices became all-in-one solutions (no need for external hardware), this technology can be potentially used everywhere. Notwithstanding, the presence of unaware observers in the surrounding area might influence the User Experience (UX) and create concerns about social acceptability, which is the phenomenon of judging a technology introduced in the future from comfort or discomfort of both the performer and the observers. The user acts in the so-called Social Environment (SE), which can be defined as an environment characterised by the spatial layout and by the people being there (number of people, their proximity, their behaviour). Depending on the VR experience played, the tasks might require a different degree of interactivity defined by the required range of body movements and level of interaction with the controllers. In this thesis, the influence of Social Environment, and the degree of interactivity of VR applications on User Experience and social acceptability is investigated. An experimental environment has been created to assess possible relations between these variables utilising a virtual environment in which four different scales of Social Environments (One Distant Person, Few Distant Persons, Few Close Persons, Many Close Persons) obtained employing 360° Videos in VR to vary the number of people, their proximity, their behaviour were simulated, and two different VR games with a low (static) and high (dynamic) level of interactivity were required to be played. The combination of these creates eight different experimental conditions (Social Environment-degree of interactivity). It was therefore performed a user study including 28 participants who assessed each experimental condition using a questionnaire-based methodology for data collection. A two-way repeated measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) has been performed on the results of the questionnaires to get information on the effect of Social Environments and interactivity on UX and social acceptability. Results showed a statistically significant influence of the scale of Social Environments on Overall UX, Public VR acceptability, Interaction acceptability, Isolation acceptability, Privacy acceptability and Safety acceptability and statistically significant influence of the degree of interactivity on Presence, Valence, Arousal, Overall UX, UX Hedonic quality and Safety acceptability. The results of the study indicate that Social Environments and degree of interactivity are dimensions that should be taken into account while designing VR applications, towards a faster and more successful application and adoption in daily contexts.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/167319