Toward Making Virtual Reality (VR) More Inclusive for Older Adults: Investigating Aging Effect on Target Selection and Manipulation Tasks in VR

Title of the Paper

Toward Making Virtual Reality (VR) More Inclusive for Older Adults: Investigating Aging Effect on Target Selection and Manipulation Tasks in VR

Paper Information

• Topic Area: User experience and interaction design for older adults in Virtual Reality (VR)
• Keywords: Virtual Reality, older adults, target selection, object manipulation, user study, interaction evaluation, interaction design, inclusive technology, accessibility, multimodal interaction

Research Background and Issues

• Identified Problems or Challenges:

  • Virtual Reality (VR) has been shown to have potential in improving physical health, cognitive abilities, and emotional well-being for older adults, but interaction designs are often not optimized specifically for this demographic.
  • Older adults tend to exhibit higher error rates and lower task completion efficiency in basic VR tasks (e.g., target selection and manipulation) due to physical, perceptual, and cognitive changes.
  • Current research primarily focuses on younger populations, with technical and design outcomes lacking specificity and failing to address the differences in user experience for older adults in VR.

• Necessity of the Research:

  • Existing VR interaction technologies do not sufficiently consider the unique operational and performance needs of older adults, neglecting inclusivity and fairness in design.
  • Understanding the unique challenges faced by older adults in target selection and manipulation tasks can help improve the usability and broader adoption of VR technology.

• Motivation and Related Work:

  • Previous studies have described the "digital divide" between older adults and digital interaction technologies, highlighting usage barriers caused by interaction difficulties.
  • Research on 2D devices has shown that aging can lead to lower efficiency and higher error rates; however, exploration of user performance and experience in 3D immersive environments remains scarce.
  • This study aims to uncover the needs and pain points of older users, offering a fresh perspective for VR technology design.

Proposed Solutions

• Methods or Solutions Proposed:

  • This study conducts two rounds of experiments, analyzing quantitative metrics (e.g., accuracy, time, number of attempts) and qualitative user feedback to explore older adults' performance in target selection and object manipulation tasks.
  • Five user experience improvement recommendations are proposed, covering aspects such as target layout, customized interaction zones, and multimodal integration.

• Innovative Contributions:

  • A systematic evaluation of VR interaction tasks specifically targeting older adults for the first time.
  • Unique design suggestions, such as leveraging multimodal cues and reducing the need for bimanual interaction.
  • Emphasis on the critical role of primary-view interaction surfaces, with a first-time analysis of the significant impact of spatial layout on target acquisition.

• Implementation Steps and Key Techniques:

  1. Experimental Design:

     • The first part of the user study focuses on target selection performance; the second part examines object manipulation tasks (e.g., rotation and scaling).
     • Research variables include target distance, size, spatial layout, and surface interaction types.

  2. Experiment Details:

     • The study uses Oculus Quest 2 devices to present the experimental environment via Unity, recording data such as time, errors, and subjective workload.
     • A comparative method is employed across older and younger participant groups (with over 20 participants in each group).

  3. Data Analysis:

     • Repeated Measures ANOVA (RM-ANOVA) and Adjusted Rank Transform (ART) methods are applied, combined with qualitative feedback to analyze user behavior.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Findings:

  • Older participants showed significantly lower task completion times, target selection accuracy, and overall comfort compared to younger participants.
  • Targets with excessive vertical offsets or requiring body extension/leaning resulted in lower target acquisition efficiency and comfort for older adults.
  • Older adults preferred single-handed operations and avoided using their non-dominant hand, exhibiting noticeable difficulties in biomechanical coordination.
  • Performance in complex bimanual operations was further inhibited for older adults, with evident limitations in fine motor adjustments.

• Advantages:

  • Fills the research gap in evaluating operational and interaction performance for a specific demographic (older adults) in VR.
  • Provides practical design recommendations, such as optimizing interaction zones, enhancing inclusivity in VR design.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  • Older adults experienced more physical fatigue (e.g., neck strain) and faced greater challenges in searching for targets beyond their field of view.
  • Significant differences in sensitivity to target positions were observed between older and younger users, especially for distant and elevated targets.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Limitations: The study only included healthy older adults, excluding users with physical impairments or cognitive decline; experiments were conducted in seated positions, without standing or dynamic scenarios.
  • Future Directions: Expand the diversity of study participants to include older adults with medical conditions or requiring wheelchair assistance; further investigate interaction scenarios involving reclining and mobile contexts; explore the integration of comfort-enhancing technologies with lightweight equipment.