Investigating User Experience in Virtual Goods Shopping through a VR Diegetic In-Game Store
Yiming Sun, Yang Zhan, Tatsuo Nakajima · 2024
Virtual Reality (VR) shopping allows users to closely browse goods like the physical store, contributing to a novel shopping experience. Yet, it is still unknown the shopping experiences and the optimal store design for virtual goods that are merely used in virtual environments. We believe the shopping of virtual goods should be further studied, given its inherent distinctions from physical goods in terms of contextual information, complex motivation, and goods properties. In this work, we explore the user experience during virtual goods shopping by comparing diegetic and non-diegetic stores in a VR shooting game. The quantitative and qualitative results from our within-subject study (N=14) confirmed that the diegetic store enhanced the hedonic experiences. A mediation analysis further unveiled the contribution of social interaction to enjoyment and immersion in the diegetic store. Our study furnishes valuable implications for the future design of VR stores and the study of social VR.