Can different contexts shape the perception of a product? A study using eye-tracking in virtual environments

Virtual reality (VR) environments offer immersive experiences that improve products presentation and evaluation by allowing realistic representations and a more accurate interaction. Advances in both hardware and software have made this tool popular. It also improves visual quality for incorporating functions like eye tracking and enables user behaviour to be analysed in more depth. Despite all this favouring its application while evaluating products, it is still necessary to investigate how different factors influence perceptions of virtual prototypes (VP) to make the most of the advantages of VR. The present research uses three case studies to explore how a context (neutral, natural, urban) impacts evaluations of product characteristics, emotional response, trust in response, observation patterns, behaviour in virtual environments, cybersickness levels and feeling of presence. The results reveal that the context does not significantly influence product evaluation, but impacts emotional response (more positive on the natural vs. urban background) and form of observation (VP is observed longer when presented on a neutral background). These findings open up new opportunities to optimise products design and evaluation. However, future research should consider other variables like users’ age and other product categories.