Olivier Christmann

Augmented sport: exploring collective user experience

This paper explores existing theories, frameworks and models for handling collective user experience in the context of Distributed Interactive Multimedia Environments (DIME) and more specifically Augmented Sport applications. Besides discussing previous experimental work in the domain of Augmented Sport, we introduce Future Media Internet (FMI) technologies in relation with Mixed Reality (MR) platforms, user experience (UX), quality of Service (QoS) and quality of Experience (QoE) within 3D Tele-Immersive Environments that are part of the broad DIME domain. Finally, we present the 3D LIVE project QoS-UX-QoE approach and model that will be applied along three use cases (Skiing, Jogging and Golfing) experiments for anticipating the potential user adoption.

Needs’ elaboration between users, designers and project leaders: Analysis of a design process of a virtual reality-based software

Abstract Context The participation of users in the design process is recognized as a positive and a necessary element as artifacts suit their needs. Two complementary approaches of users’ involvement co-exist: the user-centered design and the participatory design. These approaches involve learning process from users to designers and vice versa. However, there has no research in design of virtual reality (VR)-based software dealing with how the elaboration of needs is actually distributed in time and among users, designers and project leaders, as well as how it is actually supported by tools and methods. Objective This paper aims to observe, in a real design project of a virtual reality-based software, how the various stakeholders (users, designers, project leaders) actually participate by sharing and pulling pieces of information from the process of needs elaboration, and how these contributions evolve throughout the decisions made in the course of the project. Method Our method, based on the observation of the practices in collective design, allows us to collect and analyze the relationship between each possible action (e.g., elicitation), each stakeholder who initiates these actions (e.g., users) and each phase of the design process (e.g., evaluation phase), and the dynamics of the construction of needs. Results Our results detail how the elicited needs are dealt with by designers, users and/or project leaders: (1) we show a strong contribution of users in the design, compared to others stakeholders, (2) among the needs elicited by users, most have been validated by the designers, (3) some elicited needs could have been firstly rejected and finally validated and implemented. Conclusion We identify the reasons which justify and explain our results confronting them to the literature. We underline the conditions have been satisfied in our study in order to involve effectively users in the design of emerging technologies.

E-commerce and web 3D for involving the customer in the design process: the case of a gates 3D configurator

This paper aims to show to what extent the Web3D is an advantage for Living Lab paradigm. A state-of-the-art of Web3D solutions for e-commerce enabled us to select the most suitable functionalities and properties for designing a gates 3D configurator for person from the general public. This project was done in the context of an Action-Research. Twenty seven participants evaluated this tool. Results show that an interactive 3-dimensional visualization of the object is an advantage for the sale, because a single image does not usually allow user to imagine the product in its future environment. The use of Web3D for e-commerce gives the customer the ability to get involved in the design process. This point is a first answer to a research question on the role and definition of Living Labs.

Impact of verbal communication on user experience in 3D immersive virtual environments

Understanding the user experience has become over the last decade a major concern for both scientific community and industry. In the field of virtual reality, user experience models have already been established, however, only some of them have been empirically validated. Furthermore, the potential impact of verbal communication on user experience appears to be marginally studied by scholars. This study aims to assess the impact of verbal communication on specific factors of the user experience in the context of Virtual Reality. These factors are spatial presence, social presence and performance gain. Participants (N = 52) immersed by teams of two players in the game Minecraft had to achieve a specified goal in a given period of time. To measure the impact of verbal communication on this task by comparison, half of teams could not communicate verbally, the other half were able to. Our results highlight a significant positive effect of verbal communication on the performance gain as well as on the hedonic evaluation of the user experience. Despite some limitations and questions raised by this empirical study, these results along with previous literature demonstrate the significant impact induced by interpersonal verbal communication on the user experience in the context of a 3D immersive virtual environment.

Towards a user experience in immersive virtual environment model: a review

Today, modelling the User Experience is the subject of numerous scientific studies within the HCI community. Meanwhile, new Human-Immersive Virtual Environment Interactions (HIVEI) are continually emerging. However, the issue of measuring the user experience in immersive virtual environment is rarely dealt with in scientific literature. This has led us to our holistic user experience in immersive virtual environment (IVE) model proposal. Our model is based not only on the components of the models recommended by the literature but also based on metrics and methods used to evaluate them.

Designing a Virtual Reality Software: What Is the Real Contribution of End-Users to the Requirements Prioritization?

This paper deals with the requirements prioritization which is a step, or an activity, of design process influencing the decisions for the development of software products. This step is often implemented by designers and uncommonly by users. The objective of this paper is consequently to characterize the implementation of requirements prioritization by end-users. For that, we examined literatures of requirements engineering and ergonomics and we conducted an empirical study with twenty end-users of a virtual reality software. In this study, we analyze the lists of prioritized functionalities and the functionalities evoked spontaneously by users. Results show that (1) the priority functionalities for users were not systematically implemented by designers, (2) the different priority levels depended on users’ profiles, (3) the users who assigned ‘important’ and ‘unimportant’ priority levels evoked additional functionalities, and (4) the spontaneously evoked functionalities were mainly precisions of anticipated functionalities.

Towards a Model of User Experience in Immersive Virtual Environments

There are increasing new advances in virtual reality technologies as well as a rise in learning virtual environments for which several studies highlighted the pedagogical value, knowledge transfer, and learners’ engaged-behaviors. Moreover, the notion of user experience is now abundant in the scientific literature without the fact that there are specific models for immersive environments. This paper aims at proposing and validating a model of User eXperience in Immersive Virtual Environment, including virtual learning environments. The model is composed of 10 components extracted from existing models (i.e., presence, engagement, immersion, flow, usability, skill, emotion, experience consequence, judgement, and technology adoption). It was validated in a user study involving 152 participants who were asked to use the edutainment application Think and Shoot and to complete an immersive virtual environment questionnaire. The findings lead us to a modified user experience model questioning new paths between user experience components (e.g., the influence of experience consequence on flow).

Support optimization for additive manufacturing: application to FDM

Purpose This paper aims to present a new methodology to optimize the support generation within the fused deposition modeling process. Design/methodology/approach Different methods of support generation exist, but they are limited with regards to complex parts. This paper proposes a method dedicated to support generation, integrated into CAD software. The objective is to minimize the volume of support and its impact on a part’s surface finish. Two case studies illustrate the methodology. The support generation is based on an octree’s discretization of the part. Findings The method represents a first solid step in the support optimization for a reasonable calculation time. It has the advantage of being virtually automatic. The only tasks to be performed by the designer are to place the part to be studied with respect to the CAD reference and to give the ratio between the desired support volume and the maximum volume of support. Research limitations/implications In the case studies, a low gain in manufacturing time was observed. This is explained by the honeycomb structure of the support generated by a common slicing software, whereas the proposed method uses a “full” structure. It would be interesting to study the feasibility of an optimized support, with a honeycomb structure but with a preservation of the surface which is in contact with the part. Originality/value This solution best fits the needs of the designer and manufacturer already taking advantage of existing solutions. It is adaptable to any part if the withdrawal of support is taken into account. It also allows the designer to validate the generation of support throughout the CAD without breaking the digital chain.