The application of an immersive design process to investigate theories for motion sickness in virtual reality data visualisations
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Date
2020-01-04
Authors
Hill, Ultan
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Publisher
University College Cork
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Abstract
Virtual Reality (VR) technology allows a person to be taken from their current
environment and into an entirely new, digital and immersive one. Because of this
capability, it has been used in several fields as a data visualisation tool to completely
immerse researchers and industry professionals in their data. In industry, companies
derive value from their data by relying on their employees’ ability to create meaningful
information from it. Data literacy, in brief, is the ability to effectively manage, use, and
understand data to produce meaningful information. However, given the recent
increase in volume and complexity of data, the data literacy ability of these employees
is now often inadequate. It has been speculated that, by addressing the core pillars of
data literacy with VR instead of more traditional 2D visualisations, this problem can
be addressed more effectively. This thesis conducts research to examine how this can
be done.
A common concern of creating VR visualisations is that they can be problematic to
design in terms of the design process used. The design process for immersive
visualisations can often be based on trial and error. This is not the optimal process for
design as it is more time-consuming and relies on the designer guessing what the client
wants instead of relying on requirements and feedback from them. To address this
problem, this thesis details a novel design process which was created using the Design
Science Research (DSR) methodology. This is then tested and iterated on in a real-
world industry collaborative project.
Another concern of creating VR experiences is the adverse effects on the user. Motion
sickness is one of the most prominent physiological effects users experience. However,
while there have been numerous studies into what causes it and how it can be mitigated,
there has yet to be a study into why it occurs in VR data visualisations and how severe
it could be. While the Sensory Conflict Theory is the most widely accepted reason for
motion sickness in VR games and simulations, it has yet to be determined if this is the
case for motion sickness in VR data visualisations. This thesis describes an experiment
that was conducted to investigate this issue and determine how severe the effect of
motion sickness could be in VR data visualisations.
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The research objective of this thesis is to examine how an immersive design process
for data visualisation can explain the effects of motion sickness. As a first step, data
literacy is examined and, once a more comprehensive understanding is achieved, the
research then investigates how VR can theoretically be applied to increasing data
literacy.
Once this theoretical grounding is provided, a practical application of VR is then
examined which consisted of creating a prototype immersive visualisation in
conjunction with State Street to visualise their numerous financial product and service
offerings. This project not only resulted in a completed prototype but also in a research
chapter detailing the creation of a novel process to design immersive data
visualisations.
Once this design process was created, a new research question was discovered in terms
of how much of an effect motion sickness can have in VR data visualisations and what
are the potential reasons that can cause it to occur. This led to an experiment where two
different navigation conditions were implemented to determine the theory that best
describes motion sickness in VR data visualisations and how severe motion sickness
could be.
Through these chapters, several new insights into immersive technologies and VR can
be gained. Firstly, a greater understanding of the relationship between VR and data
literacy can be appreciated. Secondly, the thesis shows how to design an immersive
visualisation in a more efficient manner. Finally, potential reasons for, and the effect
of, motion sickness on users of VR data visualisations are detailed.
Description
Keywords
Virtual reality , Data literacy , Design process , Motion sickness
Citation
Hill, U. 2020. The application of an immersive design process to investigate theories for motion sickness in virtual reality data visualisations. MRes Thesis, University College Cork.