Virtual Reality to Enhance User Satisfaction in an Engineering Innovation Project Academic Article in Scopus uri icon

abstract

  • Innovation plays a pivotal role in driving progress across various domains. However, the success of any innovation is intrinsically linked to its ability to meet the genuine needs of end-users. Innovation through empathy is a concept that emphasizes understanding and addressing the needs, desires, and emotions of people to create meaningful solutions to various situations. It involves applying the Design Thinking concept, a human-centered approach, to management practices to drive innovation and improve organizational outcomes. IDEO's Human-Centered Design Toolkit explains that, in the world of design thinking, empathy is a 'deep understanding of the problems and realities of the people you are designing for.' Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others and it allows us to see things from another's perspective rather than our own. It is a crucial skill that enables social and professional relationships, develops self-awareness, and contributes to an equitable and peaceful world in accordance with the United Nations (UN). In recent years, virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a powerful instrument for enhancing empathy and understanding among individuals. Virtual reality has been employed by various organizations as a means to cultivate empathy. Based on the Multidimensional Emotional Empathy Scale (MDEES), this study measures the level of empathy in a group of 70 third-semester engineering students at a private university before and after viewing Virtual Reality videos created by the students themselves and aided by a 360 camera as well as special viewers. These videos depict a situation that elderly people might face in their daily lives, one that would render them vulnerable or put them in danger, such as mobility issues, visual impairments, hearing limitations, among others. Once such a situation was identified, they were tasked with recording a 360-degree video, which they had to prepare and edit for viewing with virtual reality goggles, and then present it to their peers. The objective of this research is to identify the increased development of empathy in students of various engineering careers in a private university through the development of virtual reality (VR) videos made by themselves. © 2024 IEEE.

publication date

  • January 1, 2024