Enhancing Consumer Insights Through VR Metaphor Elicitation.

Area of Science:

• Consumer Behavior and Psychology
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Virtual Reality Applications

Background:

• Understanding consumer behavior is crucial for product design, innovation, and marketing.
• Zaltman's Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) uses metaphors and non-verbal cues to explore consumer thoughts and emotions.
• Traditional ZMET interviews rely on visual stimuli like pictures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel virtual reality (VR) system for conducting modified metaphor elicitation interviews.
• To enable consumers to use 3D objects in VR for expressing thoughts and emotions, replacing traditional pictures.
• To evaluate the effectiveness and user experience of VR-based metaphor elicitation.

Main Methods:

• Development of an asymmetric VR system with a head-mounted display (HMD) for participants and a monitor for interviewers.
• Conducting a user study with 17 participants performing metaphor elicitation interviews in VR.
• Qualitative and quantitative analysis of participant and interviewer experiences.

Main Results:

• The VR system facilitates deeper expression of participants' thoughts, perspectives, and emotions.
• Immersion, presence, and embodied interaction in VR positively impact sense-making.
• User study validated the effectiveness of VR for metaphor elicitation interviews.

Conclusions:

• VR offers a promising new modality for consumer research, enhancing traditional ZMET.
• The developed VR system effectively supports deeper consumer insight generation.
• Further exploration of VR in qualitative research methodologies is warranted.