Virtual Agents in Immersive Virtual Reality Environments: Impact of Humanoid Avatars and Output Modalities on Shopping Experience

AbstractEmbodied virtual agents (EVAs) are used in various online shopping scenarios to enhance consumer experience. Humanoid avatars and output modalities of EVAs are two important factors affecting online shopping experience, which have been widely studied in shopping websites before. Moreover, immersive virtual reality (IVR) shopping is a future trend in online shopping, but research on EVAs in IVR environments is limited. The impact of them in an IVR shopping environment is not yet fully understood. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of an EVA's humanoid avatar and output modalities on the online shopping experience in an IVR environment. First, 66 participants were invited to participate in a 2 (humanoid avatar: presence vs. absence) × 3 (output modalities: text-only, voice-only, and text and voice) within-group experiment to complete the specified purchase task. After each purchase task was completed, participants were required to fill in a subjective questionnaire to score the six different combinations of virtual agents (VAs). After all purchase tasks were completed, a follow-up interview was conducted to better obtain the participants’ preferences and detailed reasons for the six different combinations of VAs. The results showed that humanoid avatars significantly enhanced participants’ perceptions of warmth, communication, trust, and satisfaction. Additionally, output modalities significantly enhanced participants’ perception of warmth, communication, trust, comfort, and satisfaction. Finally, the humanoid avatar and output modalities had significant interactions in terms of comfort. The results of this research provide theoretical reference and guidance for the design of VAs in IVR shopping environment, and also provide inspiration for the design and research of VAs in other online shopping environments.Keywords: Virtual agentimmersive virtual realitymodality combinationonline shopping experience AcknowledgementsWe would like to thank the participants for their time and efforts. This research was supported by the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Youth Project of the Ministry of Education (Grant No. 22YJC760042) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant No. 61902354).Disclosure statementThe authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this article.Additional informationFundingThis research was supported by the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Youth Project of the Ministry of Education (Grant No. 22YJC760042) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant No. 61902354).Notes on contributorsShangshang ZhuShangshang Zhu is a Professor in the School of Design and Architecture at Zhejiang University of Technology. Her research interests mainly focus on traditional Chinese culture and creative design, creative design methodology and strategies, user experience and product innovation design.Wei HuWei Hu is a Postgraduate student in the School of Design and Architecture at Zhejiang University of Technology. His research lies in the field of human–computer interaction.Wenjie LiWenjie Li is a Lecturer in the School of Design and Architecture at Zhejiang University of Technology. Her research interests focus on the fields of user experience and product innovation design, human–computer interaction research.Yenan DongYenan Dong is a Lecturer in School of Design and Architecture, Zhejiang University of Technology. Her current research interests focus on the fields of cultural creative design thinking and design education.