Virtual Reality, User Research
Exploring the Impact of Virtual Environments on Perceived Mindfulness and Presence
Overview
Research with respect to VR for meditation has mostly used nature-based environments and elements. This study explores how other virtual environments like an indoor setting, and abstract environment affect a user's perceived mindfulness state, presence, and overall meditation experience.
My Role
Defining research objectives and designing the study methodology.
Developing VR environments in Unity 3D.
Recruiting participants and facilitating the study, collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data.
Framing Research Objectives
Literature review with 30+ papers revealed that majority of studies featured VEs that simulated nature, highlighting a gap in exploring other virtual environment.
The majority of studies featured VEs that simulated nature including elements like water, vegetation, wind effects, and fire and emphasized on naturalness, softness, vividness, and slow, gentle movements. This strong focus on natural settings indicates a significant gap in the exploration and understanding of other types of VEs for meditation.
Literature review with 30+ papers revealed that majority of studies featured VEs that simulated nature, highlighting a gap in exploring other virtual environment.
The majority of studies featured VEs that simulated nature including elements like water, vegetation, wind effects, and fire and emphasized on naturalness, softness, vividness, and slow, gentle movements. This strong focus on natural settings indicates a significant gap in the exploration and understanding of other types of VEs for meditation.
Prototype Development
Interviews with practitioners helped me understand the ideal design of space and elements for meditation.
The majority of studies featured VEs that simulated nature including elements like water, vegetation, wind effects, and fire and emphasized on naturalness, softness, vividness, and slow, gentle movements. This strong focus on natural settings indicates a significant gap in the exploration and understanding of other types of VEs for meditation.
I designed 3 virtual environments for user testing based on insights from user interviews, established frameworks, and recommendations from previous studies.
These environments were selected and designed based on previous research studies on how and where people meditate, how different elements like objects and lighting affect people's mood, and design frameworks to design a meditation environment.
Testing the Prototype
The User Testing was divided into Meditation Tasks, Post-Task Questionnaires, and Post-Task Feedback.
I recruited 12 university students (ages 20–30, balanced gender, mixed VR and meditation experience). Screening criteria ensured basic VR familiarity and willingness to engage in a 20-minute session. Participants ranged from meditation novices to regular practitioners, allowing us to explore individual differences.
Qualitative Insights
Through thematic coding of the interviews, four themes emerged.
The qualitative feedback in the study was gathered through semi-structured interviews conducted after participants experienced each virtual environment. Questions were asked regarding their overall experience, likes and disliked for each environment, helpful and distracting elements, and comfort/discomfort. I open-coded the qualitative data in the following themes and then, using affinity mapping, grouped it into separate categories and subcategories
Visual Elements:
Participants relied on moving elements—rustling leaves, flickering flames, or pulsating shapes—to maintain focus.
Movement:
The forest elicited calm and grounding, the cozy room fostered comfort, and the abstract void invited intrigue but occasionally felt disorienting.
Space:
The indoor scene’s familiarity was both reassuring and, for some, slightly distracting when they noticed details in the furniture.
Soundscape:
Natural audio reinforced presence in the forest; fireplace crackle anchored attention indoors; abstract ambient tones contributed atmosphere but felt less “real.”
Quantitative Insights
Data was gathered through two established questionnaires presented as likert scale questions- State Mindfulness Scale (SMS) and iGroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ).
Mindfulness: Initial observations from the quantitative data suggested that the nature-based virtual environment led to the highest and most consistent levels of perceived mindfulness among participants. The abstract and indoor environments appeared to have a similar overall effect on mindfulness, though the abstract environment produced more consistent scores across participants
Presence: The IPQ is a standardized tool used to measure a participant's sense of presence within a virtual environment. In terms of feeling "present" in the virtual environments:
Participants generally reported a stronger sense of general presence in the indoor and nature-based environments compared to the abstract one as shown by IPQ-Gen.
The feeling of the virtual world surrounding them (spatial presence) was reasonably similar across all three environments, though there was more variation in how participants experienced this in the indoor setting as seen in IPQ-Spat.
Participants felt most "involved" or engrossed in the indoor environment, followed by the nature-based, and then the abstract environment which can be seen from IPQ-inv.
The nature-based environment was perceived as the most "realistic," followed by the indoor environment, with the abstract environment being rated as the least realistic as seen from IPQ-Real.
Design Recommendations
Based on the findings, following design recommendations were suggested when designing virtual environments for meditation.
Indoor environment:
The meditation room must be spacious enough so users do not feel restricted and claustrophobic immersed in the space. A warm and ambient environment with enough lighting will help enhance users mood. Household objects like furniture, decorations, electronics gives users a sense of familiarity which will help them relax and feel at ease.
Abstract environment:
Abstract environment has a potential to be most helpful for focus related meditation and mindfulness sessions. A sense of unfamiliarity and awe will engage the users. Motion and movement within the environment will help users focus and engage with the environment, reducing distracting thoughts.