Occasional Users´ Experiences of Visiting a Virtual Environment

The aim of the study is to analyze occasional users´ experiences of visiting a virtual environment. The phenomenographical study consists of user tests and user interviews. The user test includes 6 users, 3 men and 3 women of different ages with no previous knowledge of VR-technology. The test process for each person consists of three visits to a Cave-like environment using four different applications. All the test users found VE impressive and enjoyed visiting it. However, they found moving in a virtual space problematic. They felt uncomfortable, even sick and they got lost. The findings indicate that there are both technical and human issues in using VE as a design tool for occasional users. Moving in VE can be improved by technical development, as well as by better planning of occasional users´ visits to VE, considering users´ learning process during the visit