A study of user behavior in an immersive virtual environment for digital libraries

Abstract

In this paper we present a 2x3 factorial design study evaluating the limits and differences on the behavior of 10 users when searching in a virtual reality representation that mimics the arrangement of a traditional library. The focus of this study was the effect of clustering techniques and query highlighting on search strategy users develop in the virtual environment, and whether position or spatial arrangement influenced user behavior. We found several particularities that can be attributed to the differences in the VR environment.This study's results identify: 1) the need of co-designing both spatial arrangement and interaction method; 2) adifficulty novice users faced when using clusters to identify commontopics; 3) the influence of position and distance on users' selection of collection items to inspect; and 4) that users did not search until found the best match, but only until they found a satisfactory match.