Immersive Virtual Reality, Tool for Accessible Design: Perceived Usability in an Interior Design Studio Setting

Despite the benefits of virtual reality (VR), there has been limited exploration of how immersive VR can be implemented in interior design course content and how students perceive its use. For this study, we investigated how an immersive VR tool can be incorporated into the interior design studio to support second-year students' (n = 18) design process and outcomes and examined its perceived usability (i.e., measured as usefulness, ease of use, enjoyment, and intention to use) for accessible space design. We also explored VR's impact on advancing the interaction with space, understanding spatial information and problem-solving (PS), and how students accept the use of this technology. The students used immersive VR throughout the design process for one semester and then participated in a questionnaire. We found that immersive VR is helpful by enhancing students' interaction with the designed space, developing better spatial understanding, and advancing PS. VR was also perceived to be highly enjoyable and moderately improved job performance but was slightly less easy to use. Participants showed a high intention to utilize VR, and spatial interaction and perceived enjoyment were significantly associated with that intention. Our findings suggest that immersive VR has potential benefits for teaching and learning accessible design and can be used more generally in diverse contexts of interior design pedagogy. While these results are promising, continued research to more effectively adopt the use of this technology in the interior design studio is needed.