The development of an integrated psychosocial approach to effective usability of 3D Virtual Environments for Cybertherapy

The aim of the paper is to describe a possible direction of development and theoretical model for ergonomic research in the Virtual Reality (VR) field dedicated to psychotherapy applications. Through considerations on the strong points and limitations encountered during two different projects dedicated to the creation of virtual reality environments (VRE) for use in psychotherapy, it comments on the concepts of ecology and context of use. The theoretical perspective proposed intends to highlight the evolution from an ecology of state to an ecology of process. Given the considerable obstacles connected primarily to the lack of accepted standards for the ergonomic evaluation of 3D environments and the specific nature of the applications and user type in question, ergonomic research will represent an increasingly highly strategic aspect of clinical protocol design and upgrades: a number of closing considerations are dedicated to the operative aspects of ergonomic research and the role of the researcher.