Exploring User Preferences for Walking in Virtual Reality Interfaces Through an Online Questionnaire

This paper presents an overview of human-machine interfaces for walking in virtual reality (VR) and the results of the online survey in which 30 experienced VR users were asked to identify important design aspects and preferable types of interfaces for walking in VR. The survey results provided valuable insight into the experience and preferences of experienced VR users on VR locomotion interfaces. Over 90% of the responders used joysticks and/or “point and teleport” to navigate virtual reality scenes. Approximately 34–44% of the responders used body gestures (walk-in-place, arm swing, hand gesture for flying) to control walking/motion in VR. Less than 30% of the responders used other types of interfaces (treadmill, seated interface with leg gestures, treadmill, slidemill) for walking control. Motion sickness and the use of body-based inputs were selected as important design aspects.