About this Research Topic
As virtual reality (VR) has matured, so has our understanding of the complex interaction between human users and the VR system. We now understand that the design of interactions, scenario, hardware, and software, along with characteristics of individual users can independently impact users’ performance and behavior as well as their subjective experience of the VE (e.g., presence). Interactions between these technological and human components introduce even more complexities that make it challenging to ensure equivalent experiences for different people. Further, the continued development of mixed (MR) and augmented (AR) reality has presented new methods of interaction and engagement with the real and virtual worlds, which introduces new challenges for understanding, measuring, and evaluating the experiences of users across AR/MR/VR applications.
In this call, we are particularly interested in work examining the constructs that we use to describe and assess AR/MR/VR. Specifically, what are the constructs that matter, and how do we measure those constructs?
For example, the role of presence is widely accepted as impacting user experiences in VR, but no similar construct currently exists for MR/AR applications. Does this mean that presence is only meaningful in VR applications? Other questions of interest include:
• What does UX even mean in AR/MR/VR?
• What are similarities and differences between AR/MR/VR from a UX perspective?
• How can we evaluate UX in AR/MR/VR? Can objective measures be identified?
• Is presence meaningful in AR/MR? Do we need new constructs?
• What breakthroughs are necessary to advance evaluation of AR/MR/VR experiences?
• Where does interaction fidelity fit in?
• Is it beneficial to customize interface techniques for individual differences? If so, when and how?
Technologies across the reality-virtuality continuum may in some cases be used to achieve the same goals, but offer different UX opportunities and challenges. Understanding the connections between users’ experiences and the effectiveness of AR/MR/VR systems will advance our discipline. Work is needed to update the frameworks that we use to describe these systems. We encourage work that delves into these topics to help push forward our understanding from a theoretical and applied perspective. We do not require original user studies, and would welcome work in which previous research is analyzed from this new perspective.
In this call, we are particularly interested in work examining the constructs that we use to describe and assess AR/MR/VR. Specifically, what are the constructs that matter, and how do we measure those constructs?
For example, the role of presence is widely accepted as impacting user experiences in VR, but no similar construct currently exists for MR/AR applications. Does this mean that presence is only meaningful in VR applications? Other questions of interest include:
• What does UX even mean in AR/MR/VR?
• What are similarities and differences between AR/MR/VR from a UX perspective?
• How can we evaluate UX in AR/MR/VR? Can objective measures be identified?
• Is presence meaningful in AR/MR? Do we need new constructs?
• What breakthroughs are necessary to advance evaluation of AR/MR/VR experiences?
• Where does interaction fidelity fit in?
• Is it beneficial to customize interface techniques for individual differences? If so, when and how?
Technologies across the reality-virtuality continuum may in some cases be used to achieve the same goals, but offer different UX opportunities and challenges. Understanding the connections between users’ experiences and the effectiveness of AR/MR/VR systems will advance our discipline. Work is needed to update the frameworks that we use to describe these systems. We encourage work that delves into these topics to help push forward our understanding from a theoretical and applied perspective. We do not require original user studies, and would welcome work in which previous research is analyzed from this new perspective.
Keywords: Augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, presence, user experience
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
