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VR multi-sensory Zaltman's metaphor elicitation technique: a new method for exploring the needs of older adults in social virtual reality

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Abstract

Loneliness has serious effects on the health of the aged population. Especially, when geographic barriers were created due to the COVID-19 outbreak, older adults were in dire need of social care. This emphasized the importance of social virtual reality (Social VR), a remote social immersion technology that connects older adults to a virtual community. However, the values and requirements of this technology for older adults have not yet been discussed in detail, which makes it a highly urgent and valuable research topic. Zaltman's metaphor elicitation technique (ZMET) is a common method applied to help designers find the real requirements of users. However, ZMET ignores multi-sensory experience and on-site research. Therefore, this research proposed a VR-based multi-sensory ZMET, namely 「VRM-ZMET」. This method tries to tap into the potential needs and thought structures of older adults for Social VR. In experiments, we recruited 20 older adults (60–69 years old). The participants were randomly divided into a traditional ZMET control group (N = 10) and a VRM-ZMET experimental group (N = 10). By comparing the number of important constructs generated and the number of associations, we discussed whether the VRM-ZMET method was more effective in stimulating the potential needs of older adults for Social VR. The obtained results showed a significant difference in the number of important constructs produced by the two groups (p = 0.035 < 0.05). Validation tests showed that the experimental group produced more accurate constructs. In addition, the number of significant construct associations arising from functional and psychological consequences was significantly higher in experimental group than control group. Moreover, the experimental group using the VRM-ZMET method had a higher number (more than 3) and frequency of associations at consequences as well as value levels than the control group. The results confirmed that the method helped to tap into the potential needs of older adults and offered more accurate understanding of the preferred social types and Social VR application features of participants. This provided certain reference for the future design of Social VR service systems that will be more socially satisfying for older adults.

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Funding

This research was funded by the Fujian Social Science Planning Project, China (Grant No. FJ2018C083).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Doctoral Program in Design, College of Design, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, 10608, Taiwan

    Dan Shao

  2. Jinshan College of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, 350002, China

    Dan Shao

  3. Department of Industrial Design, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, 10608, Taiwan

    I-Jui Lee

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  1. Dan Shao
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All authors contributed to the paper. D. S. and I-J. L. contributed to conceptualization; D. S. and I-J. L. involved in methodology; D. S. provided software; D. S. involved in writing—original draft preparation; I-J. L. involved in writing—review and editing; I-J. L involved in supervision. All authors read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Dan Shao or I-Jui Lee.

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Shao, D., Lee, IJ. VR multi-sensory Zaltman's metaphor elicitation technique: a new method for exploring the needs of older adults in social virtual reality. Univ Access Inf Soc (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-024-01099-x

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