Evaluating Usability and Immersion Experiences in Virtual Reality Platforms: A Case Study Focused on the Ancient City of Chiang Saen
Kananek Sattabongkot, Ratchanon Nobnop, Banphot Nobaew, Yootthapong Tongpaeng · 2023
This academic study evaluates the usability and immersion factor with the use of Virtual Reality (VR) platforms; computer as a WebGL and the Oculus Quest 2 as VR device on Chiang Saen Ancient City’s historical VR environment. Wat Pa Sak, known as the impressive architecture and design, displaying the craftsmanship. To implement the VR application involved the process of research the related application, consulting with experts in the historical field, design characters and environments, development application, and design the evaluation. Therefore, this research focused on evaluating the user experience in three factors: presence, usability, and immersion. The experiment was conducted on two groups of elementary school students. Group 1 experienced the virtual world with WebGL platform, while group 2 experienced the virtual environment with Oculus Quest 2 device. The study’s findings indicate that utilizing Virtual Reality through the Oculus Quest 2 platform resulted in a good user experience in terms of usability. Furthermore, users reported an enhanced feeling of immersion within the Virtual environment compared to their experiences with WebGL platform.