Immersive Job Taste: a Concept of Demonstrating Workplaces with Virtual Reality

This paper presents a new concept of ‘Immersive Job Taste’ – interactive virtual reality demonstration of a workplace that aims to give a feeling of going through an average workday of a professional with elements of basic training. The main target audiences of Job Taste simulations are young job seekers who can be aided in selecting a career path at school or a welfare center, choosing the first or a new occupation, often after a period of being unemployed. The design methodology behind the Immersive Job Taste concept includes presentation of a workplace, typical tasks, feedback on performance, and advice on applying for jobs in the specific industry. We developed several scenarios and applied different virtual and augmented reality concepts to build prototypes for different types of devices. The prototypes were evaluated by several groups of primary users and experts. The results indicate a generally very positive attitude towards the concept. In this paper, we discuss the potential impact of applying the concept and directions for future work.