Abstract
An effective warning attracts attention, elicits knowledge, and enables compliance behavior. Game mechanics, which are directly linked to human desires, stand out as training, evaluation, and improvement tools. Immersive virtual reality (VR) facilitates training without risk to participants, evaluates the impact of an incorrect action/decision, and creates a smart training environment. The present study analyzes the user experience in a gamified virtual environment of risks using the HTC Vive head-mounted display. The game was developed in the Unreal game engine and consisted of a walk-through maze composed of evident dangers and different signaling variables while user action data were recorded. To demonstrate which aspects provide better interaction, experience, perception and memory, three different warning configurations (dynamic, static and smart) and two different levels of danger (low and high) were presented. To properly assess the impact of the experience, we conducted a survey about personality and knowledge before and after using the game. We proceeded with the qualitative approach by using questions in a bipolar laddering assessment that was compared with the recorded data during the game. The findings indicate that when users are engaged in VR, they tend to test the consequences of their actions rather than maintaining safety. The results also reveal that textual signal variables are not accessed when users are faced with the stress factor of time. Progress is needed in implementing new technologies for warnings and advance notifications to improve the evaluation of human behavior in virtual environments of high-risk surroundings.
Highlights
Warnings are tools that are frequently used to convey information about hazards when they cannot be designed out or guarded against [1]
We present an immersive game (Game for Safety) that consists of a virtual environment endowed with signage and risks in which it is possible to extract user information and improve learning
By making use of a serious game in which the user interacts with the proposed signaling system and distinct dangers, we evaluate signals and game usability
Summary
Warnings are tools that are frequently used to convey information about hazards when they cannot be designed out or guarded against [1]. Warnings need to influence people to act in a way to avoid personal injury and property damage. For this reason, their use is more necessary in a complex, hostile environment with communication blocks or interference and/or a stressful environment [2]. Effective warnings should rapidly attract attention, elicit knowledge, and enable compliance behavior (i.e., lead to appropriate decisions regarding performance execution). Previous studies have found that familiarity, stress, time pressure, or the presence of other mental activities can interfere with and reduce warning compliance rates [3,4]. Warning systems usually comprise passive elements that are always visible or, sometimes, dynamic lighting [2]
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