Usability and Task Load of Applications in Augmented and Virtual Reality How Applicable are the Technologies in Corporate Settings?

The technology to support Augmented (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) applications are considered increasingly mature for a broader, productive application in corporate environments. As yet, they have been underused, among other reasons, due to doubts about the acceptance and productive performance by employees. This paper presents a study that collected standardised measures for usability (SUS) and task load (NASA-RTLX) across nine different AR and VR use cases developed specifically for industrial and corporate settings. The resulting prototypes were tested with real potential users as well as with students. The results show that the participants had a positive opinion of the prototype's usability and did not register an unusually high workload. According to the results, factors such as age and gender do not appear to affect usability perception, though they still affect the task-load perception. The study concludes that with human centred design and suitable support on implementation, AR and VR can be successfully used in corporate setting.

Automated summary

The study shows that participants had a positive opinion of the usability of AR and VR prototypes developed for industrial and corporate settings, with no unusually high workload detected. Factors such as age and gender do not seem to affect usability perception, although they do impact task-load perception. With human centred design and suitable support on implementation, AR and VR can be successfully utilized in a corporate setting.