Feedback-Driven Iterative VR Prototype Development for Environmental Data Communication to the General Public

Abstract

This paper explores how interactive, immersive 3D environments can foster shared understanding of contextually situated data among volunteer-based participants from the general public. For this purpose, we developed a virtual reality (VR) prototype to visualize country-specific CO2 emissions and population dynamics across different spatio-temporal scales, contextually situated on an interactive 3D globe. Building on the first round of user evaluations, documented in our previous work and briefly revisited here, this publication presents the VR prototype’s redesign based on participant feedback and evaluates the impact of these changes. The comparison between the initial and redesigned prototypes empirically assesses whether feedback-driven design recommendations improve users’ interaction with, understanding of, and sensemaking through immersive environmental data visualization, grounded in established iterative design principles. Our findings suggest that the implemented strategies improved understanding and fostered deeper insights into the data, without overwhelming users with complex interactions or visualizations.