TY - JOUR
T1 - Factors influencing the performance of virtual reality in urban planning
T2 - Evidence from a View corridor Virtual Reality project, Beijing
AU - Jiang, Huaxiong
AU - Geertman, Stan
AU - Zhang, Hao
AU - Zhou, Shangyi
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41771148 and 42201207) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2021NTST37).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.
PY - 2022/9/30
Y1 - 2022/9/30
N2 - Virtual reality (VR) technologies, as new forms of planning support systems (PSSs), are becoming increasingly vital to planning. However, there is a lack of empirical research on factors influencing VR’s supportive role from a user perspective, thus producing barriers to VR’s advancement in planning practices. This neglect motivates the focus of this study, in which we adapt relevant PSS theory to build a conceptual framework that examines factors influencing VR performance in an experience-based environment. Empirical data are gathered predominantly through students’ experiences with and evaluation of the “Viewing the Western Hills at Yinding Bridge” (Yinding Guanshan) VR Project—a VR system developed to optimize the view corridor of Beijing’s Western Hills. The results show large variability in factors influencing VR performance. In general, the effects of six factors are significant, including 3D visualization, simulating real-world scenes, user-friendliness, interactivity, inspiring participants’ enthusiasm, and inspiring creative thinking. These factors are attributed to the functionality, usability and innovativeness dimensions of VR systems. This study concludes that to realize the supportive and useful role of VR in planning, at minimum, these six factors should be explicitly taken into account.
AB - Virtual reality (VR) technologies, as new forms of planning support systems (PSSs), are becoming increasingly vital to planning. However, there is a lack of empirical research on factors influencing VR’s supportive role from a user perspective, thus producing barriers to VR’s advancement in planning practices. This neglect motivates the focus of this study, in which we adapt relevant PSS theory to build a conceptual framework that examines factors influencing VR performance in an experience-based environment. Empirical data are gathered predominantly through students’ experiences with and evaluation of the “Viewing the Western Hills at Yinding Bridge” (Yinding Guanshan) VR Project—a VR system developed to optimize the view corridor of Beijing’s Western Hills. The results show large variability in factors influencing VR performance. In general, the effects of six factors are significant, including 3D visualization, simulating real-world scenes, user-friendliness, interactivity, inspiring participants’ enthusiasm, and inspiring creative thinking. These factors are attributed to the functionality, usability and innovativeness dimensions of VR systems. This study concludes that to realize the supportive and useful role of VR in planning, at minimum, these six factors should be explicitly taken into account.
KW - Beijing
KW - immersion
KW - information and communication technologies
KW - Planning support systems
KW - user satisfaction
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85139123516&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/23998083221130709
DO - 10.1177/23998083221130709
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85139123516
SN - 2399-8083
VL - 50
SP - 814
EP - 830
JO - Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science
JF - Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science
IS - 3
ER -