VRTogether designed a virtual reality social game that is designed to alleviate loneliness and improve a person’s well-being. Equal Entry worked with Azalee Group to see if using VRTogether’s virtual reality app could improve the lives of seniors and the education of children. The study took place at Azalee’s facility.
Overview of the User Study
The game contains different interactive scenes that take place at a beach, in a forest, or in a hot air balloon. The research opened with participants entering the beach scene. The goal was to give participants the opportunity to practice basic controls in the environment. Users can grab the blocks on the table and virtually shake hands with each other.
Users can play a Dot2Dot game in any of these settings. This is where the players connect the dots by drawing a line in order starting with No. 1 and working their way up. It does not require using the buttons on the controller to be more accessible. After connecting the dots, the item will appear on the scene.
The seniors were ages 70 to 80. They go to Azalee for rehabilitation services and socializing with each other. The children are ages five or six and attend preschool at Azalee.
This was a pilot test to prepare for funding for large-scale testing. The purpose of the pilot testing is as follows:
- Evaluate the feasibility of VRTogether as a tool to improve residents’ quality of life.
- Create a repeatable process for virtual reality user testing.
- Verify if seniors and kids can use virtual reality.
To learn more and get the results of the user studies, go to the virtual reality user study with children and seniors blog post or watch the following captioned video presentation.
Video Highlights
Select any of the bullets to jump to the topic on the video.
- Description of the user research project
- How the experience affected moods
- Participants’ reactions
- User research findings
- Other Equal Entry virtual reality projects
- Q&A with Kenji
Video
Bio
Kenji Yanagawa is an accessibility consultant based in Kyoto, Japan. He works at Equal Entry to ensure that websites are accessible to people with disabilities. He’s also the business manager of Equal Entry’s operations in Japan. He’s fascinated by emerging VR technologies and how they can be accessible.
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