Designing next-generation retail experiences via virtual reality and pseudo-haptics

Today, designing experiences that satisfy and engage users is not only a challenge but also a phenomenon of great interest in the interaction field. Indeed, advances in digital and virtual technologies and the development of new user interfaces offer the possibility to build - and live - more authentic, engaging, and compelling experiences. This doctoral research exploits an interdisciplinary approach that supports the theoretical basis and methods to investigate how digital and virtual environments invoke the relationship between the natural experience of perception and the "extended" experience mediated by new technologies. In this scenario, new simulation technologies offer the opportunity to create environments and, consequently, novel and more immersive experiences. We are increasingly hearing about Virtual Reality (VR) and haptic technology, yet too little, however, about pseudo-haptics. These technologies, characterized by their ability to merge the digital and physical realms, have attracted considerable attention in academia and industry. Their advent marks a significant inflection point in enhancing human perception and interaction within digital and virtual spaces, prompting in-depth examination and exploration in various scientific and interdisciplinary domains. This is amplified when it comes to experiences, such as shopping, which are complex to replicate in both digital and virtual environments. There are considerable critical issues associated with this type of experience linked, for example, to the impossibility of configuring a product in real-time and exploring it in an immersive mode. Or to the lack of sensory feedback (e.g., tactile) that causes the impossibility of perceiving the material properties of a product. However, a thorough review of the scientific literature has revealed very few user studies about designing shopping experiences with technologies such as VR and haptics. In this regard, there are only literature reviews that refer to the retail field but are strictly related to the areas of Marketing/Business rather than Design/Computer Science. What emerges from this analysis is that, due to scarce literature references and case studies, there is room for improvement in the field. Therefore, three different methodologies were developed in the research path and used to define and implement experimental evaluation protocols with users. In the first, we investigated whether immersive VR technology (IVR) has the potential to provide better experiences than desktop (DVR), which is closer in terms of interaction to digital experiences. To do so, the shopping experience of a handbag was simulated, and results were compared concerning the metrics of user experience, cognitive load, experience time, and hedonic/utilitarian values. A second methodology, on the other hand, was developed by exploiting the IVR together with physical reality, creating a 'hybrid' experience to allow users to configure products in real-time, immersed in an IVR scenario while touching and comparing physical samples of materials and testing the comfort of the furniture they are interested in. A third, lastly, concerns the development of user interfaces (defined as 'interactive visualizations’) that exploit pseudo-haptic effects and shoogles (sequences of interactive images) to convey a 'visualized touch' and communicate the tactile properties of fabrics. User studies were conducted only for two properties (i.e., elasticity and weight) with the future aim of applying and testing the methodology concerning other tactile material properties. The methodologies developed and validated within the studies conducted during this research path show how new media and perceptual combinations, such as IVR, IVR in addition to real haptic feedback and pseudo-haptic effects, can shape the next generation of shopping experiences. Although user studies have only been conducted in two areas of retail - fashion and furniture - they pave the way for new models of interaction and experience design in retail (and beyond), with both academic and industrial implications.