Conducting Unsupervised Virtual Reality User Studies Online

Conducting user studies online and unsupervised instead of in laboratories gives quick access to a large inexpensive participant pool. It is however unclear if data sourced this way valid, what the best practices for conducting VR are. The restrictions on laboratory experienced during COVID-19 further necessitate development valid procedures remote collection, especially research fields such as that heavily rely studies. In paper we report our experiences with two amidst pandemic, by recruiting participants relevant fora employing participants’ own standalone equipment. We investigate whether it feasible collect across in-VR survey responses hand tracking. good reliability collected data, which requires only slightly more sanitation than comparable study. synthesize into practical recommendations using recruitment, can greatly reduce barriers empirical improve quantity studies, regardless availability.