Fig 1.
Graphical representation of the experimental procedure (Drawings by Robbie McPhee).
Fig 2.
The virtual reality study setup showing the experimental setup in the virtual city center of Chemnitz, Germany inside the five-sided cave automatic virtual environment.
Table 1.
Distribution of participant age, and survey results of the participants’ self-assessment on their ability to read a map (i.e. paper or on a mobile phone), and on their previous contact with virtual reality systems and geocaching.
Table 2.
Distribution of participant age, and results of the participants’ self-assessment on their ability to read a map (i.e. paper or on a mobile phone), and on their previous contact with virtual reality systems and geocaching.
Table 3.
Results of the MANOVA using Pilai’s trace for age, gender, and the interaction effect of age and gender on Presence, User Experience and Usability.
Fig 3.
Boxplot of User Experience factors for the Younger group (Y), and for the Older group (O), showing large variability for most factors in both groups.
All factors showed differences in the median, but only Dependability and Novelty showed differences on a significant level. Whiskers indicate the 25th and 75th percentiles.
Fig 4.
Boxplot of Usability for the Younger group (Y) and for the Older group (O), showing large variability in both groups and larger variability in the Older group.
There was a significant difference in Usability showing higher values for the young. Whiskers indicate the 25th and 75th percentiles.
Fig 5.
Boxplot of Presence factors for the Younger group (Y) and Older group (O), showing almost equally large variabilities in both groups and similar medians, except for ecological validity.
This factor shows significantly larger differences in the medians and the variability of the groups being larger for the Younger group. Whiskers indicate the 25th and 75th percentiles.