Virtual Tourism: Towards Better User Experience in Online Virtual Tours

The disruption to tourism and travel caused by the COVID-related health crisis highlighted the potential of virtual tourism to provide a universally accessible way to engage in cultural experiences. 360-degree virtual tours, showing a realistic representation of the physical location, enable virtual tourists to experience cultural heritage sites and engage with their collections from the comfort and safety of their home. However, there is no clear standard for the design of such tours and the experience of visitors may vary widely from platform to platform. In our previous research, we conducted a remote usability study to gain deeper insights into the actual experiences and challenges faced by virtual tour users. Our investigation revealed a significant disparity between users’ mental models of virtual tours and the actual system behavior. We outlined issues and provided concrete recommendations for the creation of better, user-friendly 360-degree virtual tours. We plan to continue to investigate the design and impact of virtual tours, and investigate user experiences across diverse platforms and devices (e.g. Smartphones, VR Headsets, Tablets), each offering different features . Additionally, we plan to explore different navigation types, including central movement and free movement, as well as varying content and navigation structures specific to each platform. Our emphasis lies on the navigation aspect, which is crucial in shaping users’ perceptions of virtual tours. Subsequently, we will examine two key features of virtual tour navigation, as identified in our initial analysis: the degree of freedom of movement (i.e., the number of System Navigation Points) and the transition between movements.