Name of the participant: André Zenner
Description of the IT research project: In the Software Campus project “ViRUX – Virtual Reality for the Improvement of User Experience in the Exploration of Process Chains by means of Haptics” it was investigated how virtual reality (VR) in combination with haptic feedback can lead to an improved user experience (UX) when viewing abstract data sets. The project dealt with event-driven process chains (EPK), i.e. abstract data structures that represent temporal-logical sequences (e.g. business processes).
The goal of “ViRUX” was to integrate other senses of the user, especially auditory and haptic perception, into the user experience in order to make the exploration and learning of process models an entertaining, interactive, immersive and memorable virtual experience. For this purpose, the project developed a novel VR interface for viewing EPK process models. The resulting system automatically transforms 2D process models for immersive data visualization into virtual 3D environments, which can be explored in VR using various locomotion techniques and interactively explored through haptic interactions. Through gamification, the user can explore the process in a logical sequence to learn about dependencies and decisions in the process. Thanks to two different types of haptic feedback, the user becomes an actor in the process, interacting with functions and logical connectors to control the information flow in the process. In a user study of the system, it was shown that learning a process with traditional 2D visualizations takes less time than with VR, but the interest of the users is significantly higher when exploring with multisensory virtual reality.
Software Campus partners: DFKI, Scheer Holding
Implementation period: 01.01.2018 – 30.06.2019