Investigating Age-Related Performance and User Experience Differences in Immersive Virtual Reality Industrial Training Applications

Despite the European Union’s efforts to decrease workplace accidents, statistics show an increase in accidents in the last years. Therefore, training workers is crucial to prevent injuries. The thriving of new technologies, such as Immersive Virtual Reality, can offer innovative training methods in the industrial field. However, introducing innovative technologies to a user base with an increasing average age necessitates evaluating the impact on workers across various age groups. In this contribution, we developed an IVR system to train workers to learn procedures in industrial environments. We recruited 50 participants and divided them into three age groups: young (19–33 years), middle-aged (34–48 years), and older (49–63 years). Objective (execution errors and times) and subjective metrics (User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ), System Usability Scale (SUS), and Virtual Reality Sickness Questionnaire (VRSQ)) were collected. The results showed that the young group made more mistakes than the other two groups, but there were no statistically significant differences in execution times. The SUS score was statistically significantly higher for the young group than the others, the VRSQ did not show any significant increase. For the UEQ score, young participants rated IVR experience excellently, while others rated it slightly lower.