Abstract
In some circumstances, immersion in virtual environments with the aid of virtual reality (VR) equipment can create feelings of anxiety in users and be experienced as something “frightening”, “oppressive”, “alienating”, “dehumanizing”, or “dystopian”. Sometimes (e.g., in exposure therapy or VR gaming), a virtual environment is intended to have such psychological impacts on users; however, such effects can also arise unintentionally due to the environment’s poor architectural design. Designers of virtual environments may employ user-centered design (UCD) to incrementally improve a design and generate a user experience more closely resembling the type desired; however, UCD can yield suboptimal results if an initial design relied on an inappropriate architectural approach. This study developed a framework that can facilitate the purposeful selection of the most appropriate architectural approach by drawing on Norberg-Schulz’s established phenomenological account of real-world architectural modes. By considering the unique possibilities for structuring and experiencing space within virtual environments and reinterpreting Norberg-Schulz’s schemas in the context of virtual environment design, a novel framework was formulated that explicates six fundamental “architectural paradigms” available to designers of virtual environments. It was shown that the application of this framework could easily be incorporated as an additional step within the UCD process.
Highlights
This study focused on one challenge that arises in the middle of the user-centered design (UCD) process, as described below
The particular styles of real-world architecture that have existed in diverse cultures throughout human history can be interpreted as manifestations of these modes, which are illustrated in Figure 3 and described below
For example, that a designer has been charged with creating a virtual environment for use in a science-fiction-themed virtual reality (VR) game that is meant to conjure up in players feelings of awe, fear, and intimidation as they explore an abandoned settlement of some unfathomably powerful, ancient, and logically-minded alien civilization: use of the framework developed in this text would suggest that a designer might reasonably employ the Cyberspatial Grid paradigm when architecting the initial version of the environment to be evaluated and refined through later stages in the UCD process
Summary
Specialized VR hardware and software generate much more powerful sensorimotor feedback loops by detecting and interpreting a user’s movements and other behaviors in real time to determine what action the user is attempting to take within the virtual environment, instantaneously calculating how the environment should respond, and providing appropriate sensory stimuli to create a convincingly interactive experience [5,6] Thanks to such immersiveness and interactivity, VR users do not “look at” a virtual environment in the way that one looks at a painting; rather, they become a visitor who has the experience of temporarily “occupying” or “inhabiting” that virtual space
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
