VISHnu: An approach to support the personalization of self-expressive avatars using context-awareness

Abstract

The avatar is a digital character that represents a person in a virtual environment, such as the metaverse. It is widely used in games and is also becoming a reality in other domains. Research indicates that the characteristics of a person’s avatar can influence his/her behavior while using a system, improving the sense of presence, immersion, and self-expression. A gap is how to support developers proposing avatar personalization, considering a user’s context, and understanding how context-awareness applied to avatars influences self-expression. In this article, we investigate how to support the development of self-expressive avatars. We present VISHnu, an approach developed to support the formalization of the use of context for avatar personalization. We conducted three evaluations to investigate the potential and feasibility of the VISHnu approach with specialists and developers: a focus group (n $=$ 6), interviews (n $=$ 6), and a questionnaire (n $=$ 12). In addition to guidelines derived from mixed qualitative methods and data triangulation, including insights from the literature review, we present two tangible artifacts—the checklist and glossary. These artifacts provide a robust initial foundation for developers and enthusiasts aiming to create avatar customization solutions aligned with advancements in immersive worlds like the metaverse. Our results have the potential to contribute to the creation of avatar personalization solutions that are more inclusive and more representative of human diversity.