UX and Requirements for Social XR
The Distributed and Interactive Systems group conducts controlled lab experiments and pilots with users to collect subjective scores regarding QoE. The group uses mixed methodologies for better understanding (qualitative) and, quantifying and predicting (quantitative) the experience of users. From in-depth interviews and ethnography to questionnaires and physiological signal analysis, the group is equipped with a varied toolset to truly understand and model the quality of experience of users.
Topics
- Social VR experience design: The interactions and environments in social VR need to be carefully designed to fulfill their objectives. In the DIS group, we utilize a human-centric approach to design social VR experiences, using methods such as co-design sessions, focus groups, questionnaires and creative workshops. This way we ensure that the final project is designed taking into account the needs of all stakeholders, from product producers to end users.
- Social VR evaluation: Social Virtual Reality (Social VR) systems have the potential to support the richness of interactions resembling the face-to-face ones. In this area, we are developing tools and protocols to evaluate such immersive and interactive experiences in Social VR. In particular, we have developed a new evaluation protocol, a new questionnaire and are investigating what objective data to collect for adequate modeling;
- Point clouds: Point cloud is one of the technologies used for representing 3D scenes and objects in virtual immersive systems. A point cloud is a set of points in a 3D space, that together make up the surface of an object. We perform subjective experiments using both quantitative and qualitative methods to evaluate point cloud compression quality. The quantitative study aims to collect ground truth subjective scores, and observe user reliability when assessing point cloud quality. The qualitative study aims to explore users’ perception of point cloud quality, and uncover quality dimensions that need to be considered when building objective metrics for point clouds;
- 360-degree video: Fully omnidirectional cameras, able to instantaneously capture the 360-degree surrounding real world scene, have recently started to appear as commercial products and professional tools. In order to design perceptually-optimized omnidirectional visual communications, the availability of tools to quantify the level of distortion introduced by each processing step, and, ultimately, the overall quality of the processed signal and the 360-degree experience is critical. At DIS, we study the visual distortions characteristics of 360-degree content production and processing and their impact on user’s QoE;
- Immersive Technologies in Cultural Heritage: Nowadays, immersive technologies become more present in the cultural sector than ever before. Those systems find their place in sectors that previously would remain mostly analog, like theater or museums. Our group takes an active part in cultural projects, in which we co-create exhibitions, performances and art-pieces with curators and artists, using social VR and other immersive technologies. We closely cooperate with curators, artistic directors, historians and artists to create interactive, original and moving works.
- End-to-End latency: When using a videoconferencing system there will always be a delay from sender to receiver. Such delays affect human communication, and therefore knowing the delay is a major factor in judging the expected QoE of the conferencing system.
Funding
Videos
- MediaScape XR: https://youtu.be/zzB7B6EAU9c
- MediaScape XR Short: https://youtu.be/I7kY1cMZyD0
- Celebration of CWI’s 75th anniversary in SocialVR: https://youtu.be/KcRpp0s50RQ
- VRTogether Pilot 3: https://youtu.be/0l82gbTc1WCQ
- VRTogether: Ground-breaking Social Virtual Experiences: https://youtu.be/dL5NX74roBg
- 5Dculture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEcP7pUq2xw
Software and Datasets
- Color-based objective quality metric for point cloud contents
- PCM_RR
- PointPCA
- Subjective assessment of dynamic point clouds
- MP3DG: Development framework for point cloud compression algorithms
- VideoLat
- VMC-TB
Publications
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Designing Virtual Reality Environments for Sociality.
In Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26),
2026.
-
The Influence of Context on Learning in a Social VR Historical Fashion Exhibition.
In International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences (IMX ’26),
2026.
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VRD: A Multi-Lingual Translation and AI-Assisted Navigation Experience for VR Conference Application.
In Proceedings of the 31st ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST),
2025.
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Enhancing the Audience Experience for VR and AR Theatre with AI-generated Subtitles.
In Proceedings of the 31st ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST),
2025.
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Curating with Technology: How to Bring Old Fashion Back to Life in Museum Exhibitions.
In Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Interactive eXtended Reality (IXR '25),
2025.
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User centric Requirements for Enhancing XR Use Cases with Machine Learning Capabilities.
In IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW),
2025.
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Communication Challenges between Clients and Producers of Immersive Media Applications: can Social XR help?.
In Proceedings of the 2024 ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences (IMX '24),
2024.
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Designing and Evaluating a VR Lobby for a Socially Enriching Remote Opera Watching Experience.
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics,
,
2024
.
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Understanding and Designing Avatar Biosignal Visualizations for Social Virtual Reality Entertainment.
In Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '22),
2022.
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Subjective evaluation of visual quality and simulator sickness of short 360° videos: ITU-T Rec. P.919.
IEEE Transactions on Multimedia,
,
2021
.
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Evaluating the User Experience of a Photorealistic Social VR Movie.
In Proceedings of IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR 2021),
Bari, IT,
2021.
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CakeVR: A Social Virtual Reality (VR) Tool for Co-designing Cakes.
In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (ACM CHI 2021),
Yokohama, JP,
2021.
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A reduced reference metric for visual quality evaluation of point cloud contents.
IEEE Signal Processing Letters,
,
2020
.
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A new Objective Quality Metric for Point Cloud Contents Based on Color.
In Proceedings of the International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (QoMEX),
Athlone, Ireland,
2020.
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Comparing the Quality of Highly Realistic Digital Humans in 3DoF and 6DoF: A Volumetric Video Case Study.
In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR),
Atlanta, GA, USA,
2020.
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Measuring and Understanding Photo Sharing Experiences in Social Virtual Reality.
In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Proceedings (CHI 2019),
Glasgow, Scotland, UK,
2019.
Standards
- P.919 (ex. P.360-VR) - Subjective test methodologies for 360º video on head-mounted displays: https://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-P.919/en
- P.1305 (ex P.DTM) - Effect of delays on the tele meeting quality: http://www.itu.int/itu-t/workprog/wp_item.aspx?isn=8897
