Why Does It Always Rain on Me? Influence of Gender and Environmental Factors on Usability, Technology Related Anxiety and Immersion in Virtual Environments

Abstract

Abstract.Collaborative virtual environments and technical possibilities in general are still a growing and more and more important influence on everyday life. According to corresponding studies it seems that context conditions as well as individual factors such as gender play an important role in the experience of virtual environments (i.e. immersion and technology-related anxiety) and in the rating of the used technology (i.e. its perceived usefulness). Thus, the objective of the current study was to evaluate the above mentioned factors in a group of 14 women and 14 men using two different emotionally charged collaborative virtual environments. The corresponding results indicate that there are in fact gender differences: Women reported higher levels of technology-related anxiety and immersion. In general, participants in the rainy condition rated the usefulness of the virtual environment higher. Also, women in the rainy condition rated the perceived usefulness higher than women in the cheerful condition whereas in the group of men it was vice versa.

Development and Evaluation of an Outdoor Multisensory AR System for Cultural Heritage

“…In fact, albeit literature frequently raises the sex as a moderator to use or their intention to use a technology [56], [57], our results that demonstrated no statistically significant differences between usability scores and sex, are in line with [45], [69], [82] where has been also demonstrated that these differences tend to not be identified.…”

“…When evaluating the usability of a new system, age and sex differences appear to affect the reaction of users towards technologies [15], [54]. Woman appear to more strongly refuse to wear technology [55] or to take longer time to perform tasks [56], reporting higher levels of technologyrelated anxiety [57]. Not all adults know how to handle new technological conditions and have difficulties gauging just by how much they can alter the convention [58].…”

User Evaluation of a Multi-Platform Digital Storytelling Concept for Cultural Heritage

“…Regarding differences in SUS scores between men and women, we found a gap of 1.17 points for the desktop/laptop version (82.20 for men and 81.03 for women) and a gap of 4.76 for the mobile version (82.73 for men and 77.97 for women). While some studies suggest that gender plays a role in technology anxiety and adoption [34], others did not find significant differences in usability scores between men and women [35].…”