First author. Co-authors: Magnus Rotvit Perlt Hansen and Josefine Gill Jensen.

Published at DESRIST 2018.

This project represents one of my early forays into VR. When seeking inspiration for the development of a VR experience and trying out the VR experiences that were available in the early days of the SteamVR platform in 2016-2017, we found that although there was a lack of research that presented formalized design principles, most VR experiences did seem to follow some unspoken design principles. In our work, we identify these as designing for spatiality, interaction, and narrative. We built two VR experiences that implemented and manipulated these design principles. We then conducted a user study in which participants were systematically exposed to the VR experiences and asked to reflect upon their experiences in semi-structured interviews.

It was pretty interesting to attack VR from the perspective of design science research. I think most of it holds quite well based on my later experiences. Of course, we find that it is very difficult to untangle the three design principles, and that they interconnect to a point where it can be difficult to speak about one without the other.

I haven’t done much design science research before or since, but Magnus was an excellent guide. Josefine’s combination of intuitive understanding of the VR space and infinite patience was also pivotal in the design and evaluation of the VR experiences.