## 7 Discussion
The findings of the study indicated that the increase in blood pressure experienced by the majority of the participants was due to physical stress resulting from the physical activities and was not due to psychological stress [47]. Aside from including the active interaction, the insignificant differences recorded for the blood pressure and pulse rate reading might also be caused by the excitement in using the system or focused attention on fascination stimuli included in the virtual environment. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [48], in an article on best practices for stress measurement, highlighted that biological changes, such as increases in blood pressure and pulse rate, are not only evoked by psychological stress but can also be triggered by non-psychological stress situations such as feeling excited, focusing attention on stimuli or exercising. The findings reported by [47; 48] underlined an important point that physiological changes are not only triggered by increases in psychological stress but may also be contributed to by other factors. The insignificant differences recorded for the psychological measures were not a novel situation. Similar findings were reported in [17; 37; 38; 49] in the studies of stress reduction and psychological restoration. For the usability aspect, the result obtained demonstrated that the system implementing the concept of the proposed framework was usable for reducing stress. The mean value recorded for the usability of the system revealed that the system was at the 'good' level of usability acceptance as well as interpreted to be in the 'A-' usability category. For the usefulness of the system in reducing stress, the results indicated that the system was useful. The usefulness was demonstrated by the high mean value of perceived usefulness based on TAM items. The recorded mean value was higher than 5, which surpass the scale's mean of 4. Similarly, the result on the perceived usefulness of the system based on a general scale also indicated that the system was opened to be useful in assisting the users in reducing stress. The mean recorded for the perceived usefulness based on the general scale was greater than 7, which also exceeded the scale's mean of 5.5. In terms of ease of use, the system was agreed to be easy to be used. The mean value recorded for the perceived ease-of-use items adapted from TAM was 6.071, which surpassed the scale's mean of 4. The result indicated that the system was easy to be used. As presented, the results for the effectiveness, usability, usefulness and ease-of-use of the system, which demonstrated the concept of the framework proposed, returned positive findings. These encouraging findings indicated that the design elements included in the virtual environment somehow contributed to the stress reduction process. As the results presented were encouraging, therefore, it was appropriate to investigate in detail which of the design elements proposed contributed to this effect. Based on Table 9, all 14 design elements proposed obtained a higher score in the 'helpful' feedback. Despite the positive result, two of the design elements, which were (i) passive interaction and (ii) the pre-defined path, recorded most of their scores in the percentage of 'helpful' and 'not helping much' feedback. A detailed analysis of the interview transcripts revealed that the higher 'not helping much' feedback recorded by these two design elements compared to the other design elements was due to issues in the implementation strategies of these two design elements in the prototype. Therefore, the existing implementation strategies should be improved to better present the design elements, thus enhancing the helpfulness value. For passive interaction, the participants suggested including more fascinating stimuli objects or features to distract the users' minds. With passive interaction, the users were given the opportunity to sit back and enjoy the surrounding view without having to engage in physical activities.