Editorial: Immersive reality and personalized user experiences
Panagiotis Germanakos, Catherine Sotirakou, Constantinos Mourlas, Simon Richir, Hajo G. Boomgaarden · Frontiers in Virtual Reality · 2022
Immersive Reality and Personalized User ExperiencesThe underlined "Human-Technology Symbiosis" has transformed the Immersive Reality (IR) technologies and computational systems to a new multidimensional communication medium providing new opportunities, activities, methodologies, processes, and services.Most researchers, designers and practitioners follow the "onesize-fits-all" paradigm, focusing on the technology used to create high-fidelity IR simulations; however, the human factors involved in achieving a state of presence must be taken into account as well.The big challenge is to build immersive spaces that consider also intangible aspects influenced by the individual differences rather than only technology-related concepts; generating personalized experiences and ensuring the expected engagement and satisfaction.Immersive Reality (IR) technologies as a collective term representing Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) or Mixed Reality (MxR) provide an unprecedented potential of integrating the users' physical reality with virtuality, when they execute tasks and actions towards accomplishing specific goals.This reality-virtuality continuum aims at enriching the user experience, view and understanding by offering the opportunity to (a) visualize different concepts in real time and interact intuitively with them in a simulation or "hybrid" world, and (b) make information and knowledge more accessible through experiential learning methods and techniques.However, embracing a standard viewpoint on given users' activities in immersive spaces may not ultimately facilitate the successful attainment of presence and engagement.Even worse, there is a high risk of overwhelming the users, creating confusion and frustration during interaction.For example, standard solutions may use designs, interaction practices and interfaces, questionable usability, functionality, efficiency, reliability and maintainability that may be ineffective for a single user or group of users.