AstroVR: Improving usability of an educational VR experience

Abstract: The objective of the project was to improve an existing prototype called AstroVR. AstroVR is an educational VR experience with the intent of teaching astronomy to middle grade students. The goal of the masters thesis was specifically to make the product more usable and increase its effectiveness as a teaching tool. The product was improved over multiple iterations. Each iteration contained a design meeting, development, and small scale testing. The final product was then evaluated using a more structured test at the school Lerbäcksskolan in Lund during which a survey was performed (SUS) and video was recorded. The resulting product got a SUS rating of good to very good and review of the video showed no major issues that prevented users from using the product successfully. When looking at the test results as well as when making comparisons to users’ interaction with the previous version of AstroVR, I deem that the project has sufficiently improved in target areas that the goal can be considered reached.