Effective Navigation in VR Spaces Using Visual and Auditory Stimulation

With the growing interest in virtual reality and designing virtual spaces, navigating these spaces in a simple way is very important. Designers need to focus on creating spaces that the user can use. Few studies have aimed to find effective ways to enhance the user experience in virtual reality applications. The aim of this study is to analyze visual and auditory stimuli to discover which is the most effective in aiding orientation and spatial memory in VR spaces. Two identical virtual mazes were built, each containing either visual or auditory landmarks to aid the users in orienting themselves. We asked 42 participants to complete one of the two mazes and measured the time taken by each participant to complete the maze. With a P-value = 0.782, no significant difference was found between the average time taken by each sample to complete the maze. The type of stimuli didn’t seem to have a significant effect on the participants’ capability to orient themselves. However, interviews with the participants after the test, revealed that those who performed the visual test more often identified the elements inside their maze as landmarks that could be used to aid their orientation. Participants who performed the test involving audio stimuli also misinterpreted or derived unintended meanings from the elements present in their maze more often than participants in the visual maze. These results could aid VR developers and space designers to create 3D environments that are easy to understand and navigate for both experienced and novice users.