A usability comparison of physical and virtual buttons in extended reality environments using controller and hand tracking
Li-Hsun Peng, Ming-Han Bai · 2025
This study investigates the impact of three interaction methods—controller with virtual buttons, hand tracking with virtual buttons, and hand-operated physical buttons—on operation efficiency and system usability in extended reality (XR) environments. Eight participants were recruited to perform 135 button-press tasks using a Meta Quest 3 headset. After completing each interaction mode, participants evaluated system usability by completing the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire. A Friedman test examined statistical differences across the three conditions, followed by pairwise comparisons using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The results revealed significant differences in both task performance and perceived usability. The hand-operated physical button interaction achieved the shortest operation time and highest SUS scores, while the controller-based virtual interaction performed the worst. These findings have practical implications for XR design, suggesting that incorporating physical feedback into XR interaction design can significantly enhance usability and interaction performance, thereby improving the user experience.