Utilizing the Metaverse as a UX Research tool
The participant looks at me with an expressionless face. She tells me how she would loan money just so she could buy a game or a treat for her younger siblings. The words reach me through lips unmoving, the tale long and sorrowful. Then her voice cracks, and I realize she had been on the verge of tears all along.
A lot has been written and spoken about the Metaverse in recent years, ranging from articles right here on Medium, to academic research papers spanning all the way back to 1996. While the technology as many picture it is yet to truly take off, many industries are abuzz with initiatives, discussion and speculation about the potential of the Metaverse (or lack thereof). While I have my reservations about the adoption of VR/AR technology, you can’t deny that the tech has been developing with leaps and bounds.
While widespread use is yet to be upon us, the UX field can prepare and explore the challenges and possibilities of the tech. There are 2 branches here: explore and prepare the potential uses and impact the Metaverse will have on your industry, or explore how you can use the tech to improve your research or design practice. In this article I’ll be covering the latter.
Persuading Participants to Show Their ‘Real Self’
At the Nationale-Nederlanden research team we wondered if we could use the Metaverse as a research tool to uncover hidden emotions and experiences that we otherwise would not be able to study. There are many topics that are difficult to talk about: sex, money, violence, desires, the list goes on. Traditionally such taboo topics are researched through highly involved methodologies, such as diary studies. We suspected the Metaverse could be used to persuade participants to be more open while requiring less time investment than other alternatives.
The idea is that interviewing a participant in VR achieves two things: first, they can be completely anonymous. They can choose their own appearance and don’t have to be in the same room as the interviewer. Secondly, because they can create an alternative identity, they can let go of who they are pretending to be, and instead be who they truly are (projected self vs real self). At the same time, you will still have a sense of personal connection and being in the same space that you wouldn’t have over a phone or video-less Teams call.
We felt it was very important to test these assumptions about the effectiveness of anonymity, due to conflicting research results in the past. There are several studies that found no meaningful impact on research results due to anonymity, while some find study quality increases, and yet others claim it can decrease the quality of your findings.
So which is it? Does anonymity make it easier (or harder) to research difficult topics? And if so, can VR help facilitate this process? Let’s put it to the test.
The participant gets up. He walks to the wall filled with pictures. I’d asked him to pick one that reflects his current emotions. Next thing I know, he’s on the other side of the wall. “Oh.” He says. “How’d I get here?”
The Setup
Together with our partners in Ipsos, we invited 16 participants who are struggling with their finances to come talk about their experiences. From previous studies we knew that debt and financial woes are extremely tough topics to talk about. There is a lot of shame involved, and the factors leading to financial distress are often less than pleasant.
8 were interviewed face to face, 8 were interviewed in VR using Oculus Quest headsets. To eliminate as many variables as possible, the same script and methods were used for both groups, and both groups came to the Ipsos office. The VR group did not meet the researcher in real-life, and instead were put in an empty observation room with the headset. The interviewer was in a different room. The VR participants had created their own avatar via Readyplayer.me beforehand, and were instructed that they could be who-ever they wanted to be.
The Findings
The conversations we had were diverse and impactful. I heard participants admit to drug use and share stories about how they were afraid to open letters because they were worried about bills. I was face-to-face with someone who had to deny their children basic joys for a lack of money. I murmured sympathies while someone admitted that they couldn’t support their partner and child anymore, despite a full-time job at a municipality. The experience was truly humbling.
But here’s the catch. Half of these examples were in VR. Can you guess which? On the whole, participants were very open about their experiences (once they got going), but we also identified half-truths and gaps in their stories, regardless of medium. Although we did experience that the participants were slightly more open in VR based on the (sometimes shocking) details they’d give, we can’t say for certain based on the small sample size.
So does that mean that we can’t use the Metaverse to persuade participants to show their ‘real self’? Well, no, it’s not that simple. Our partner Ipsos also did a VR study with Gen-Z about their dreams and aspirations. In that study they found a huge difference, with participants dropping all pretense and showing a more vulnerable side of themselves in VR.
Our conclusion is that the topic that we chose kept the participants grounded in real-life, negating the effect that the virtual environment had on them. We enabled them to be someone else, someone they’d like to be, and then asked them questions about their (harsh) reality. Had we picked a more open subject (like what do you think the economy looks like in 5 years), we probably would have seen bigger differences.
In other words, you can use the Metaverse to do explorative and ideation research about difficult topics (taboo, strong cultural expectations, etc), but make sure that the conversation steers clear of their reality, and instead discuss potentials, ideal situations, the future, etc. For example, ask participants what a world without debt would look like, or do ideation on ways to help people in debt, or practice debt prevention.
Challenges, Limitations and Practical Tips & Tricks
So let’s say you want to try your hand at using VR as a research tool. Let me share the things we learned so that your path may be a bit easier. Fair warning: Metaverse research is hard. Whether you’re researching difficult and emotionally laden topics or not, you will have to navigate the limitations of VR that I’ve listed below. I’d only recommend the technique to senior researchers.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way first: good technical logistics are paramount. Expect to run a lot of pilot tests before your first research session. You need to figure out comfort, safety, audio, how to record, how to troubleshoot, how stable your network is for VR, how to incorporate participant avatars, you need to create a virtual space to host the interview in, and so on. Thankfully for most of these topics you can use random colleagues as participants! They’ll enjoy getting the opportunity to fool around in VR, and you’ll be able to tick a few more things off your preparation checklist.
It’s likely that your participants will have no or limited experience with VR. Make sure to include some time at the start of the study to let them get used to the controls. Additionally, make sure to let them create an avatar ahead of the study, so that they are ready to go when they get there. We used readyplayer.me, but we did receive some complaints from the participants that the options were not inclusive. For example, there were no options for head coverings or plus-sized bodies.
The participant seemingly struggled with the controls, one of their avatar’s arms awkwardly hanging off to the side. “You can use the other controller to walk” I said. “Oh,” she replied, “but I’m missing an arm, I can only use one controller at a time.” I didn’t quite know how to reply to that.
Once the interviews start, you’ll encounter some more difficulties. First and foremost, you have no facial expressions to go on, and very limited body language. Even tone of voice is slightly constrained due to mic/speaker quality. You cannot read your participant. You don’t know what emotions they are having unless it shows in their voice. You can’t tell whether they are finished speaking, or just taking a breath. You need to pay full attention, and be willing to suffer through awkward silences.
The participant also can’t read you. You will need to verbally let them know that you are listening. Be careful with jokes and sarcasm, as they can’t infer meaning from your body language either. They can see movement. Resist the urge to stretch or move around, as this translates to avatar movement, giving the participant the feeling that you’re not paying attention.
Once you’re in VR, you’re in. You won’t have access to your interview script. You can’t tell time unless you put a clock in the VR space. You can’t take notes, or even jot down a topic to circle back to later. You’’ have to memorize it all, including your research script.
And a final remark: at the end of the VR interviews we asked the participants whether or not they wanted to meet the researcher face-to-face. Every participant said yes. I’ll leave the conclusions of this factoid up to you, but be sure to include some time for wrap-up chit-chat in real-life.
Final Thoughts
Getting to do research in VR was an incredibly humbling and educative experience. While the tool has its limitations, I can also see its uses in the right settings. I can wholeheartedly recommend giving VR research a go for senior researchers that want to flex their research muscles a little. It is a truly challenging methodology to get right, and it will make you a better researcher.
If you would like to know more, feel free to reach out to me or leave a response! I could talk about this topic (and the financial findings) for hours. On the subject of talking — I’m more than willing to speak about VR research at a meet-up or event. If you have something in mind, let’s connect :)
