The book presents research in understanding how to make Virtual Reality (VR) applications more enjoyable and realistic. The author studies this in relation not just to VR games for entertainment, but also for other applications such as serious games, which are used for education and training. To make VR games better, the work examines topics like the content in the game, the context in which it's played, and human factors like one’s age, and previous experience with VR. By understanding these factors, the author creates guidelines to make VR games more engaging and user-friendly. The primary purpose of this work is to evaluate and identify different influences on User Experience (UX) for VR serious games, intending to narrow the research gap between Influencing Factors (IFs), UX, and design guidelines for VR serious games. With eight user studies and five different VR serious games developed, different influences and links between those factors and UX components are investigated.
Tanja Kojić is a User Experience (UX) researcher and designer focusing on new immersive media such as Extended (XR) and Virtual Reality (VR). She holds an M.Sc. in Information and Communication Technology from the University of Zagreb, Croatia and has pursued additional studies in Graphic Product Design, with an emphasis on UX design. She began her career at SAP Innovation Center Network as UX designer; and in 2017, she joined the Quality and Usability Lab at TU Berlin, Germany as a research assistant, initiating her journey in UX research. She earned her Ph.D. in February 2023 with the thesis "User Experience for Serious Games in Virtual Reality," which was awarded with summa cum laude, proving her dedication to advancing the impact of technology on user experiences. During her PhD, she was also selected to be part of the Software Campus which she has presented at Digital Summit 2018, and won the award for the best presentation at Science Slam 2019. Throughout her career, she has contributed to publications, conferences, and talks in the field of VR and UX design, including IEEE Quality of Multimedia Experience, IEEE Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, IEEE Artificial Intelligence and Virtual and International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. She has also participated in the standardization activities of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) on the topics of “Influencing factors on quality of experience for virtual reality services” and “Subjective Test Method for Interactive Virtual Reality Applications”.
