Evaluation of Interaction Concepts in Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality (VR) is widely used nowadays and, therefore, it is important to provide a high usability of this technology. In this paper we evaluate the possibilities of performing device assessment of prototypes of technical objects in VR applications: We designed three different interaction concepts for using the prototypes. We executed a case study in which the participants had to complete the task of brewing a cup of coffee with a virtual coffee machine using these interaction concepts. We observed the participants behavior and problems during the completion of the task with the help of videos and questionnaires. Two of the interaction concepts are controller-based, one is a headset-based gaze pointer. The users of the gaze pointer performed best: They completed the task fastest and rated this concept with the highest usability score. The controller-based concepts were rated lower and the participants completed the task slower. The result of our case study can serve as a potential guideline with usability principles for VR applications concerning the design of controllers and the different interaction concepts.