Improving Presence Theory Through Experiential Design

Abstract

Despite ongoing research over the last 15 years, the presence construct remains somewhat limited in its ability to be applied beyond the sensory domain. In order to increase its usefulness for applied challenges (e.g., using presence theory to enhance simulators' effectiveness), a discussion about a new conceptualization of presence is introduced. This novel perspective on presence is rooted in the notion of "experiential design," an approach businesses use to create strategically compelling and memorable experiences. The paper begins with a brief review of presence and then a description of the concepts of experimental design. Following this, a theoretical model of presence, based upon experimental design, is offered. Using this model, an exploration on the mitigation of breaks in presence is offered (a break in presence occurs when presence fails to be maintained). These ideas are presented in order to improve the likelihood of presence emerging for simulation participants and to enhance interdisciplinary researchers' shared conceptualizations of presence.

Designing presence for real locomotion in immersive virtual environments: an affordance-based experiential approach

“…As a consequence, better performances can be achieved (Barfield et al 1995). The enhancement of the sense of presence theorized in Chertoff et al (2008) was experimentally confirmed in the study reported in Chertoff et al (2010).…”

“…In the context of VR, ED has been proposed as a method to enhance presence in VEs (Chertoff et al 2008). Table 1 (middle column) reports the five dimensions of ED applied toward VEs, as illustrated in Chertoff et al (2010).…”

“…The objective of this paper is to address these guidelines. For this purpose, a framework is proposed, which encompasses both an ecological design based on Gibson's theory of affordances (Gibson 1979), and a holistic design based on experiential design (Pine and Gilmore 2011;Chertoff et al 2008Chertoff et al , 2010.…”

“…These considerations motivate the research reported in the present study. By combining the ecological approach with the experiential one, this work attempts to answer both the need to integrate a comprehensive theory of locomotion perception into VE design and the call of Chertoff et al to: ''begin to explore the holistic experience of participating in mediated environments'' (Chertoff et al 2008).…”

Virtual Experience Test: A virtual environment evaluation questionnaire

“…There exist affective and cognitive elements, or endogenous factors, that contribute to a holistic experience beyond the physical location and the tasks performed. There is much emerging support within the literature for a relationship between presence and holistic experiences [7][10] [17]. In fact, several researchers have begun to look towards commercial video games to better understand how presence is affected through holistic virtual environments [4][8] [19] [27].…”