ABSTRACT
In this chapter a discussion of how individual differences and features of virtual environment (VE) technology affect VE application design is provided. This discussion is motivated by the fact that differences among individual users often account for more variability in performance than system design factors. Individual differences overshadowing system design features in terms of their influence on human-machine system performance is particularly troubling with respect to achieving the primary objective of human factors research, that is, to determine the aggregate effect of a particular system variable on human performance and behavior for the purposes of formulating future system design guidelines to optimize safety, performance, reliability, comfort, ease-of-use, and so forth. Individual differences can severely inhibit a designer’s ability to design for a “typical” effect of a particular design factor. With this in mind, addressing user characteristics through VE design may produce substantial improvements in, for example, virtual task performance and the effectiveness of VE trainers. Specifically, user issues that have been hypothesized to be important to collaborative virtual environment (CVE) design are considered, including the number of virtual participants (i.e., whether the environment is to be shared or structured for individual use), and the location of users. The
impact of both these issues on virtual task performance is evaluated. With respect to the latter, the implications of remote versus proximate access to a VE and the application design are examined.
