Realidade virtual, narrativas e imersão: um estudo de caso acerca da experiência do usuário

Abstract

While immersion is a recurrent concern in the academic research about Virtual Reality and its technologies, is noticeable a certain preponderance in the study of the technological devices of hardware, or even in the development of software artifacts in favor of more realistic interfaces, in the expectation of producing immersive experiences. Perhaps it happens due to the origin of this new field of studies within computer science and information and communication technologies, but in the last decades there has been a great increase in the number of publications that present other important questions about immersion and Virtual Reality, which are not related to technological developments. Particularly in the field of media and communications, Virtual Reality has been gaining new connotations considering its potential as a means of communication with its own language, yet to be explored. In this context, the research presented here proposes a case study about immersive narratives in Virtual Reality, seeking to experience an application, exclusively built for this work , in order to understand a supposed relationship of user immersion as a function of the use of narratives in the construction of the experience of Virtual Reality. The case study discursively analyzes the reports of seven participants, students in the area of information and communication technology, who volunteered to test the software. The results obtained point to potential benefits of using narratives in virtual reality applications as tools for industrial simulations and training.