Using Micro-phenomenological Interviews To Collect And Compare Lived Experiences In Virtual Reality: A Review Of Two Studies

Abstract

In virtual reality (VR), users live real-life experiences that can be studied as such. We first present two studies in which we collected the lived experiences of participants using micro-phenomenological interviews. We then modeled and compared these descriptions of experiences. The first study focuses on experiences associated with an ophthalmology ambulatory journey in VR, while the second one pertains to those associated with alternative decision-making during a cooking task in VR. We then present and discuss the main insights we derive from these two studies: micro-phenomenological interviews are adapted to collect lived experience in VR; the analysis of these interviews benefits from data collected in VR; "sensory anchors" facilitate the conduct of micro-phenomenological interviews and their analysis; the VR experience collected through micro-phenomenological interview primarily concerns the task. CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in HCI; Field studies; Virtual reality.