Designing a Taxonomy for Evaluating Virtual 3D Interfaces and Experiences

Synopsis

As virtual reality climbs out of the trough of disillusionment, now is the time to be developing design methods and tools. In the effort to make VR as immersive as possible, lots of new hardware technologies have been developed, and design methods are being explored to make better use of them. However, the effect of wearing all this hardware hasn’t yet been explored in detail. Is more hardware required for experiences to be more immersive? Does wearing so much hardware ever get overwhelming? This thesis attempts to discover the relationships between virtuality, interaction and hardware encumberment, and offers a new comparative tool which can help designers make more informed decisions about the use of hardware in their experiences.