Technological University Dublin ARROW@TU Dublin Dissertations School of Computer Sciences 2017-1 Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Observation for Virtual Reality User Interface Design William MacNamara Technological University Dublin Follow this and additional works at: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/scschcomdis Part of the Computer Engineering Commons Recommended Citation MacNamara, W. (2016) Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Observation for Virtual Reality User Interface Design. Masters thesis, 2016. This Theses, Masters is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Computer Sciences at ARROW@TU Dublin. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ARROW@TU Dublin. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Observation for Virtual Reality User Interface Design William MacNamara A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Dublin Institute of Technology for the degree of M.Sc. in Computing (Advanced Software Development) 2016 DECLARATION I certify that this dissertation which I now submit for examination for the award of MSc in Computing (Advanced Software Development), is entirely my own work and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the test of my work. This dissertation was prepared according to the regulations for postgraduate study of the Dublin Institute of Technology and has not been submitted in whole or part for an award in any other Institute or University. The work reported on in this dissertation conforms to the principles and requirements of the Institute’s guidelines for ethics in research. Signed: _________________________________ William MacNamara Date: ____/____/________ 2 ABSTRACT There is a lot of interest and excitement surrounding the areas of Virtual Reality and Head-Mounted Displays with the recent releases of devices such as the Oculus Rift, Sony PSVR and the HTC Vive. While much of the focus for these devices has been related to sectors of the entertainment industries, namely the cinema and video game industries, there are many more practical applications for these technologies, with potential benefits in educational, training/simulation, therapeutic and modelling/design software. Developing a set of reliable guidelines for Virtual Reality User Interface Design could play a crucial role in whether the medium successfully integrates into the mass market. The Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Organisation offer a psychological explanation of human perception, with particular reference to pattern recognition and how we subconsciously group entities together. There are seven Principles of Perceptual Organisation, nearly all of which are currently widely used in User Interface design, offering designers guidelines on what the size, shape, position and colour the different components of an interface should be. This study presents an analysis on the effects that the employment of the Gestalt Principles has on the usability and mental workloads of Virtual Reality applications. Keywords: User Interface, User Experience, Virtual Reality, Gestalt, Usability, Mental Workload 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like first to express my sincerest gratitude to Dr Luca Longo, who went above and beyond the call of duty to help me optimise and organise my experiments, despite not being my assigned thesis supervisor. Dr Longo also taught one of my modules during the second semester of my Master’s Program, where he helped me and my classmates to choose and refine our thesis topics and proposals. I could not have completed my experiments without your help Luca, so I cannot thank you enough. I would also like to thank my supervisor, Dr Deirdre Lillis who was also very helpful in setting up meetings with other researchers studying about Virtual Reality and for always being available whenever I needed help with anything. Thanks are also due to the lecturers and tutors who taught me everything I needed to know to complete this research project; so to Ciaran Cawley, Pierpaolo Dondio, Brendan Tierney, Damien Gordon, John Gilligan, Brian Keegan, John McAuley, Andrew Hines and Andrea Curley I owe my gratitude. Developing for Virtual Reality and running an Oculus Rift requires a powerful computer, and my brother Tom was kind enough to allow me to use his gaming PC to develop my application. He spent many evenings kicked out of his own room and even spent a couple of needs sleeping in beds other than his own to allow me to work on the software undisturbed. This project would not have been possible without Tom’s selflessness, so to him I say thank you so much. Without the participant observation experiment, this thesis would have been made completely redundant, so I would like to thank each and every one of the participants who volunteered to take part in the experiments, especially on such short notice. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Compu-Hire Ireland, who saved my thesis when they supplied me with a rental PC for the experiment after the PC I had been working on decided to have a meltdown a matter of days before the experiment was due to begin. 4 Lastly, to my parents who kept me sheltered and fed and offered me endless support, as well as to my friends who ensured my spirits were never too deflated over the past few months, it goes without saying that I will be eternally grateful for all of the support you never cease to offer me. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.............................................................................................................................2 ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..............................................................................................................4 TABLE OF CONTENTS..................................................................................................................6 TABLE OF TABLES........................................................................................................................9 TABLE OF FIGURES....................................................................................................................10 1INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................11 1.1Background .....................................................................................................................11 1.2Research Project/problem ..............................................................................................12 1.3Research Objectves .......................................................................................................12 1.4Research Methodologies ................................................................................................12 1.5Scope and Limitatons .....................................................................................................13 1.6Document Outline ..........................................................................................................13 2LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................................................15 2.1Introducton.....................................................................................................................15 2.2The Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Observaton...........................................................15 2.2.1Principle of Proximity...............................................................................................16 2.2.2Principle of Similarity................................................................................................17 2.2.3Principle of Symmetry..............................................................................................18 2.2.4Principle of Closure...................................................................................................18 2.2.5Principle of Contnuity..............................................................................................19 2.2.6Principle of Common Fate........................................................................................19 2.2.7Principle of Figure/Ground (Prägnanz).....................................................................20 2.3Virtual Reality .................................................................................................................20 2.4Mental Workload............................................................................................................22 2.5Sofware Usability...........................................................................................................24 2.6Conclusion.......................................................................................................................26 3DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY................................................................................................27 3.1Introducton.....................................................................................................................27 3.2Hardware and Sofware Implemented............................................................................28