The Effects of Environmental Factors on User Experience in Virtual Reality Intangible Cultural Heritage Experience

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) has a unique capacity to create a sense of presence and immerse users in alternative worlds, narratives, and cultures. For traditional handicrafts (TH) in the category of intangible cultural heritage (ICH), VR has the ability to convey to the public the process and cultural atmosphere of creating handicrafts that are difficult to experience in real life. In order to increase public awareness of TH, we created a VR experience about Chinese Miao Batik, a low-popularity TH. We compare two VR experiences in a user study: one in daily production sites of Miao Batik craftsmen, and the other in a museum workshop. Our results suggest that i) VR can elicit cultural engagement and return visit interest, and ii) a VR experience depicting the realistic production environment with ethnocultural characteristics inspires higher user engagement and sense of presence. This study provides a valuable reference for designing ICH-related VR experiences.