Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Observation for Virtual Reality

101 Pages·2017·2.79 MB·English

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Dissertations School of Computer Sciences
2017-1
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William MacNamara
Technological University Dublin
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MacNamara, W. (2016) Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Observation
for Virtual Reality User Interface Design. Masters thesis, 2016.
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Evaluating the Effectiveness of the
Gestalt Principles of Perceptual
Observation for Virtual Reality User
Interface Design
William MacNamara
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of
Dublin Institute of Technology for the degree of
M.Sc. in Computing (Advanced Software Development)
2016
DECLARATION
I certify that this dissertation which I now submit for examination for the award of
MSc in Computing (Advanced Software Development), is entirely my own work and
has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has
been cited and acknowledged within the test of my work.
This dissertation was prepared according to the regulations for postgraduate study of
the Dublin Institute of Technology and has not been submitted in whole or part for an
award in any other Institute or University.
The work reported on in this dissertation conforms to the principles and requirements
of the Institute’s guidelines for ethics in research.
Signed: _________________________________
William MacNamara
Date: ____/____/________
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ABSTRACT
There is a lot of interest and excitement surrounding the areas of Virtual Reality and
Head-Mounted Displays with the recent releases of devices such as the Oculus Rift,
Sony PSVR and the HTC Vive. While much of the focus for these devices has been
related to sectors of the entertainment industries, namely the cinema and video game
industries, there are many more practical applications for these technologies, with
potential benefits in educational, training/simulation, therapeutic and modelling/design
software. Developing a set of reliable guidelines for Virtual Reality User Interface
Design could play a crucial role in whether the medium successfully integrates into the
mass market. The Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Organisation offer a psychological
explanation of human perception, with particular reference to pattern recognition and
how we subconsciously group entities together. There are seven Principles of
Perceptual Organisation, nearly all of which are currently widely used in User
Interface design, offering designers guidelines on what the size, shape, position and
colour the different components of an interface should be. This study presents an
analysis on the effects that the employment of the Gestalt Principles has on the
usability and mental workloads of Virtual Reality applications.
Keywords: User Interface, User Experience, Virtual Reality, Gestalt, Usability,
Mental Workload
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like first to express my sincerest gratitude to Dr Luca Longo, who went above
and beyond the call of duty to help me optimise and organise my experiments, despite
not being my assigned thesis supervisor. Dr Longo also taught one of my modules
during the second semester of my Master’s Program, where he helped me and my
classmates to choose and refine our thesis topics and proposals. I could not have
completed my experiments without your help Luca, so I cannot thank you enough.
I would also like to thank my supervisor, Dr Deirdre Lillis who was also very helpful
in setting up meetings with other researchers studying about Virtual Reality and for
always being available whenever I needed help with anything.
Thanks are also due to the lecturers and tutors who taught me everything I needed to
know to complete this research project; so to Ciaran Cawley, Pierpaolo Dondio,
Brendan Tierney, Damien Gordon, John Gilligan, Brian Keegan, John McAuley,
Andrew Hines and Andrea Curley I owe my gratitude.
Developing for Virtual Reality and running an Oculus Rift requires a powerful
computer, and my brother Tom was kind enough to allow me to use his gaming PC to
develop my application. He spent many evenings kicked out of his own room and even
spent a couple of needs sleeping in beds other than his own to allow me to work on the
software undisturbed. This project would not have been possible without Tom’s
selflessness, so to him I say thank you so much.
Without the participant observation experiment, this thesis would have been made
completely redundant, so I would like to thank each and every one of the participants
who volunteered to take part in the experiments, especially on such short notice. I
would also like to extend my gratitude to Compu-Hire Ireland, who saved my thesis
when they supplied me with a rental PC for the experiment after the PC I had been
working on decided to have a meltdown a matter of days before the experiment was
due to begin.
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Lastly, to my parents who kept me sheltered and fed and offered me endless support,
as well as to my friends who ensured my spirits were never too deflated over the past
few months, it goes without saying that I will be eternally grateful for all of the support
you never cease to offer me.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION.............................................................................................................................2
ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..............................................................................................................4
TABLE OF CONTENTS..................................................................................................................6
TABLE OF TABLES........................................................................................................................9
TABLE OF FIGURES....................................................................................................................10
1INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................11
1.1Background .....................................................................................................................11
1.2Research Project/problem ..............................................................................................12
1.3Research Objectves .......................................................................................................12
1.4Research Methodologies ................................................................................................12
1.5Scope and Limitatons .....................................................................................................13
1.6Document Outline ..........................................................................................................13
2LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................................................15
2.1Introducton.....................................................................................................................15
2.2The Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Observaton...........................................................15
2.2.1Principle of Proximity...............................................................................................16
2.2.2Principle of Similarity................................................................................................17
2.2.3Principle of Symmetry..............................................................................................18
2.2.4Principle of Closure...................................................................................................18
2.2.5Principle of Contnuity..............................................................................................19
2.2.6Principle of Common Fate........................................................................................19
2.2.7Principle of Figure/Ground (Prägnanz).....................................................................20
2.3Virtual Reality .................................................................................................................20
2.4Mental Workload............................................................................................................22
2.5Sofware Usability...........................................................................................................24
2.6Conclusion.......................................................................................................................26
3DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY................................................................................................27
3.1Introducton.....................................................................................................................27
3.2Hardware and Sofware Implemented............................................................................28
3.2.1Hardware Implemented...........................................................................................28
3.2.2Sofware Implemented.............................................................................................28
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3.3 Applicaton Design..........................................................................................................29
3.3.1 Applicaton Design - Tasks.......................................................................................29
3.2.3Applicaton Design - Interfaces.................................................................................33
3.3Result Processing.............................................................................................................38
3.3.1System Usability Scale (SUS).....................................................................................39
3.3.2Raw Task Load Index (RTLX).....................................................................................40
3.3.3Objectve Results Processing....................................................................................40
3.3.4Data Triangulaton....................................................................................................44
3.4Design Limitatons...........................................................................................................45
4IMPLEMENTATION AND RESULTS...........................................................................................46
4.1Introducton.....................................................................................................................46
4.2Partcipant Observaton...................................................................................................46
4.2.1Partcipant Demographics........................................................................................47
4.3Results.............................................................................................................................49
4.3.1Objectve Results......................................................................................................49
4.3.2Subjectve Results.....................................................................................................56
4.3.3Triangulated Results.................................................................................................65
5EVALUATION AND ANALYSIS..................................................................................................66
5.1Introducton.....................................................................................................................66
5.2Objectve Results.............................................................................................................66
5.3System Usability Scale (SUS)............................................................................................69
5.4Raw Task Load Index (RTLX)............................................................................................72
5.5Overall Triangulated Score (OTS).....................................................................................73
5.6Conclusion.......................................................................................................................74
6CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................76
6.1Research Overview..........................................................................................................76
6.2Findings...........................................................................................................................76
6.3Limitatons.......................................................................................................................77
6.4Future Work & Recommendatons..................................................................................77
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................80
APPENDICES.............................................................................................................................90
Consent Form...................................................................................................................90
Study Informaton.............................................................................................................91
System Usability Scale......................................................................................................93
RTLX - Pre-test Questonnaire...........................................................................................94
RTLX - Post-test Questonnaire.........................................................................................95
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Experiments Results Set...................................................................................................99
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TABLE OF TABLES
Table 4.1 Partcipant Group Distributon..................................................................................48
Table 4.2Time...........................................................................................................................51
Table 4.3 Clicks.........................................................................................................................53
Table 4.4 Mistakes....................................................................................................................54
Table 4.5 FOV Diferental........................................................................................................56
Table 4.6 Task A Overall Objectve Results...............................................................................56
Table 4.7 Task B Overall Objectve Results...............................................................................57
Table 4.8 SUS Q1 Results..........................................................................................................58
Table 4.9 SUS Q2 Results..........................................................................................................59
Table 4.10 SUS Q3 Results........................................................................................................59
Table 4.11 SUS Q4 Results........................................................................................................60
Table 4.12 SUS Q5 Results.......................................................................................................60
Table 4.13 SUS Q6 Results........................................................................................................61
Table 4.14 SUS Q7 Results........................................................................................................61
Table 4.15 SUS Q7 Results........................................................................................................62
Table 4.16 SUS Q9 Results........................................................................................................62
Table 4.17 SUS Q10 Results......................................................................................................63
Table 4.18 Overall SUS Scores..................................................................................................64
Table 4.19 The average overall RTLX and self-assessed performance scores...........................65
Table 4.20 Average OTS results for each Interface on each task..............................................66
Table 5.21 Objectve Results t-Test (Task A).............................................................................69
Table 5.22Objectve Results t-Test (Task B)..............................................................................70
Table 5.23 SUS t-Test (Task A)..................................................................................................71
Table 5.24 SUS t-Test (Task B)..................................................................................................71
Table 5.25 OTS t-Test (Task A)..................................................................................................75
Table 5.26 OTS t-Test (Task B)..................................................................................................75
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