Human factors in virtual worlds. 1. Information structure and representation

The now-popular conception of virtual reality as a household item offering unlimited entertainment in designer fantasies is unlikely to reach the mass market for some time. The more immediate and interesting applications of VR are practical ones in the fields of science, medicine, industry and technology, in which the professional user may benefit from an enhanced experience of working in a more-or-less familiar environment. By the author´s definition, VR is simply a design approach that aims to immerse the user in the sensory experiences associated with a different environment, ultimately providing an `altered sense of presence´. Technologically, VR is essentially a synthesis of advanced or novel techniques in human-computer interaction (HCI). Thus, all the established principles and methods of human factors and ergonomics in the design of human-machine systems still apply. The authors consider how VR concepts lend themselves to the much-vaunted inclusion of human factors as a driving force in systems design