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Usability Of Virtual Worlds

Lu Haind, Brockmann Tobias, Stieglitz Stefan

Research article in edited proceedings (conference) | Peer reviewed

Abstract

Abstract. In recent years virtual worlds left their origins driven by new technologies. Following, 3D-based environments moved into business related domains and are used e.g. to support virtual meetings or product presentations. However, enterprises have to consider that large share of companies' employees still fit to the definition of so-called digital immigrants. While younger employees are familiar with the usage of 3D-based environments, navigating in virtual rooms might be challenging for digital immigrants. This could limit the usage of virtual worlds for business related contexts. Therefore, we conducted usability tests with digital immigrants in virtual worlds and investigated their experiences. Our results show that in fact digital immigrants face problems when using virtual worlds. Based upon our study we discuss how to improve usability of virtual worlds for this group of users.

Details about the publication

Publisher: Marcus A.
Book title: Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS)
Page range: 340-348
Publishing company: Springer
Place of publication: Berlin-Heidelberg
Status: Published
Release year: 2013
Language in which the publication is written: English
Conference: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI),, Las Vegas, NV, USA, undefined
ISBN: 978-3-642-39228-3
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-39229-0
Keywords: Virtual worlds; usability; digital immigrants

Authors from the University of Münster

Brockmann, Tobias
Research Group Communication and Collaboration Management (KUK)
Lu, Haind
Research Group Communication and Collaboration Management (KUK)
Stieglitz, Stefan
Research Group Communication and Collaboration Management (KUK)