What is ExperienceDNA?
August 31st, 2022
ExperienceDNA: Combining an immersive (VR) context with a highly controllable and trackable lab context to map the user experience.
The ExperienceDNA framework allows researchers and organisations to 1) create immersive experiences for product testing, 2) control the interactions between users and their surroundings, and 3) collect a wide range of fine-grained sensor data. All of which results in a user experience that can be mapped in detail. Developed in Unity, the framework caters to researchers and product designers who want to fully customize the visual aspect of their test set-up (e.g., room layout, objects in the room, lighting, etc.). What is more, the multi-functional Wizard-of-Oz dashboard allows the researcher to manipulate the flow of the experience by cueing the user’s to interaction with the environment in real-time.
Most notably, the ExperienceDNA framework facilitates both qualitative and quantitative data logging. This means that the user experience can be fully mapped via capturing eye gaze data, pupil dilation data, blink rate data, object interaction data, reaction times, accuracy and heart rate monitoring. In the future, the framework will accommodate various other sensors, such as EEG, to facilitate a fine-grained user experience profile. Importantly, the data can be both monitored in real-time and logged and exported at the end of the VR experience. We have already validated the framework via an immersive smart kitchen use case scenario. The results of this validation study show that ExperienceDNA is a leap forward for interactive user testing systems that can greatly benefit user experience research and product design. The full report of the validation study is published HERE.