Effects of user factors on user experience in virtual reality: age, gender, and VR experience as influencing factors for VR exergames

As virtual reality (VR) technology is extensively developing in past years, more and more people are using it in different fields. One of the fast-developing areas in VR is exergaming, a combination of physical exercise and a game. VR exergames that aim to engage people in physical activity should look and feel good for users regardless of their age, gender, or their previous VR experience with similar technologies. However, recent studies showed that those factors are influencing the user experience (UX) with virtual reality. Building on top of the initial study that has reported on the effect of human influencing factors for exergaming, with this work, we investigated the influence of user parameters (such as age, gender, and previous VR experience) on their motivation for sports and VR exergaming. The study was done using a crowdsourcing platform to recruit a diverse set of participants, with the aim to explore how different user factors are connected to sports motivation. Results show significant differences in the user’s sports motivation and affinity for technology interaction depending on the age group, gender, previous experience with VR, their weekly exercise routine, and how much money they spend on sports yearly.