Evaluating Virtual Reality as a Medium for Usability Testing on Inflight Entertainment Applications

Abstract: This thesis aims to evaluate the feasibility of using virtual reality as a medium for usability testing. Usability testing has long been an important part of any iterative development process. Most usability testing is, however, done in a lab setting, outside the product's natural environment. Virtual Reality (VR) on the other hand can engross a user in any environment. This thesis was done in an iterative manner, splitting it into two iterations both with a development phase and a testing phase. The first iteration's development phase involved creating the VR application which was going to simulate an aeroplane environment for the participant. The application created a one-to-one mapping between a physical screen that the users tapped on and its streamed counterpart which they saw in VR. The testing phase then continued by writing a full test plan and conducting a usability test on an In-Fligt Entertainment (IFE) map application. The second iteration took the results and feedback from the first and improved on the most lacking parts, namely the mapping between the virtual and real-life screens. It contained the same steps as the first iteration but improved only on existing aspects rather than creating anything new. The final VR application put forth after the second iteration showed that VR can be used as a medium for usability testing. Using VR does increase costs and workload for the test researchers but the negative aspects are outweighed by the benefits. The participants' answers show that VR makes the tests more interesting and more realistic. For some users, the fact that the moderator is hidden also makes them more confident and want to explore the application further.