Improving Interaction with Virtual Environments

Introduction Virtual environments (VEs) provide a computer-based interface to a real-life or abstract space, using 3D graphics and 3D interaction techniques. VEs represent a novel interface style which offers new possibilities and challenges to human-computer interface design. However, studies of the design of VEs (Kaur et al., 1996) show that designers lack a coherent approach to design, especially interaction design. Designers appear to be pre-occupied with difficult technical issues and think little about supporting user interaction. However, major interaction problems have been found with current VEs, such as disorientation, perceptual misjudgements and difficulty finding and understanding available interactions (McGovern, 1993; COVEN, 1997). These common problems have been known to result in user frustration and a low usability and acceptability for the VE (Kaur et al., 1996; Miller 1994). Guidance is needed on interaction design for VEs to avoid such usability problems. Towards this aim, usability requirements for VEs were proposed using theoretical research into user interaction behaviour. A controlled study was carried out to evaluate the usability requirements, by comparing interaction success with and without their implementation. Significant improvements in interaction were found.