Psychological Issues of Virtual Environment Interfaces
Casey Boyd*
and
Rudy Darken**
- *Institute of Cognitive Science
and
- Department of Computer Science
- University of Colorado
- Boulder, CO 80309-0430 USA
- cboyd@cs.colorado.edu, +1 303 492 4800
- **Naval Research Laboratory
- Washington, D.C. 20375
- darken@enews.nrl.navy.mil, +1 202 767 2236
Keywords
Cognitive psychology, ecological psychology, evaluation, interface
design, perceptual psychology, usability, virtual environments.
OVERVIEW
The purpose of this workshop is to provide a common ground for the
diverse research into the psychology of virtual environments
(VEs). There is a small but growing research community investigating
these issues, but there is no research forum devoted to
them. Publications on the psychology of VE interaction are scattered
across various conferences and journals.
The broadly interdisciplinary character of the fundamental issues
makes research in this area difficult. The workshop is planned to
encompass an intersection of psychological issues, designing and
evaluating for usability, and virtual environment interfaces.
The research perspectives that we would like to bring together include
Computer Science, Cognitive Psychology, Perceptual and Ecological
Psychology, Urban Planning and Architecture (designers of physical
spaces used by people), and Industrial Engineering. We invite the
participation of researchers and practitioners whose work is on the
topic, though possibly not working directly with VE systems.
THEME AND GOALS
The workshop theme is "Psychological Issues in Usability of Virtual
Environments: Design and Evaluation." The central questions are: What
are the components-of human, task, and system-that are relevant to
usability and how are their roles understood?
The workshop will focus on human aspects of VE interaction-the
psychological basis of difficulties using VEs. The theme includes:
- spatial orientation and wayfinding in virtual worlds,
- designing the virtual world to leverage on human perceptual
abilities, not just striving for photo- realism,
- affordances for travelling from one virtual location to another,
directed or browsing, and for acting in the environment,
- designing the controlling inputs to take advantage of human
physical abilities (and adapt to disabilities),
- evaluating VE interfaces, experiences with usability testing of
whole systems,
- appreciating the interdependence between task features and
interface design,
- understanding the dimensions of usefulness and complexity for VE
interfaces.
This workshop builds on the CHI '94 "Workshop on the Challenges of 3D
Interaction."[1] The 1994 workshop report listed a set of future goals
that the participants "believe the research community needs to" work
on. Several of those goals are closely aligned with our plans for the
1996 workshop.
WORKSHOP ORGANIZATION AND ACTIVITIES
The workshop will take place during the two days prior to the CHI 96
conference. The focus of this workshop is on productive discussion
rather than individual presentations. The panels will be interactive
and informal, to promote discussions that include all workshop
participants and facilitate the useful exchange of ideas and
opinions. Each participant will serve on the panel of one or two panel
discussions.
The planned workshop activities on the first day will consist of
introductions, small group discussions, and three panel
discussions. Activities on the second day will be two panel
discussions, a special topics discussion, and a summary
discussion. The panel discussions will explore the themes listed above
in the Theme and Goals section.
REFERENCES
- Herndon, K.P., A. van Dam, and M. Gleicher. The
Challenges of 3D Interaction: A CHI '94 Workshop. SIGCHI Bulletin
26, 4, (1994), 36-43.
- National Research Council. Virtual Reality: Scientific and
Technological Challenges. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.,
1995.
