Designing social immersive virtual environments for the Metaverse: The case study of MetaLibrary
Background: Over the last few years, the rapid advancement of technology has led to the development of many approaches to digitalization. In this respect, metaverse provides 3D persistent virtual environments that can be used to access digital content, meet virtually, and perform several professiona...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Virtual Reality & Intelligent Hardware |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2096579625000221 |
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| author | Alberto CANNAVÒ Giorgio ARRIGO Alessandro VISCONTI Federico De LORENZIS Fabrizio LAMBERTI |
| author_facet | Alberto CANNAVÒ Giorgio ARRIGO Alessandro VISCONTI Federico De LORENZIS Fabrizio LAMBERTI |
| author_sort | Alberto CANNAVÒ |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: Over the last few years, the rapid advancement of technology has led to the development of many approaches to digitalization. In this respect, metaverse provides 3D persistent virtual environments that can be used to access digital content, meet virtually, and perform several professional and leisure tasks. Among the numerous technologies supporting the metaverse, immersive Virtual Reality (VR) plays a primary role and offers highly interactive social experiences. Despite growing interest in this area, there are no clear design guidelines for creating environments tailored to the metaverse. Methods: This study seeks to advance research in this area by moving from state-of-the-art studies on the design of immersive virtual environments in the context of metaverse and proposing how to integrate cutting-edge technologies within this context. Specifically, the best practices were identified by i) analyzing literature studies focused on human behavior in immersive virtual environments, ii) extracting common features of existing social VR platforms, and iii) conducting interviews with experts in a specific application domain. Specifically, this study considered the creation of a new virtual environment for MetaLibrary, a VR-based social platform aimed at integrating public libraries into metaverse. Several implementation challenges and additional requirements have been identified for the development of virtual environments (VEs). These elements were considered in the selection of specific cutting-edge technologies and their integration into the development process. A user study was also conducted to investigate some design aspects (namely lighting conditions and richness of the scene layout) for which deriving clear indications from the above analysis was not possible because different alternative configurations could be chosen. Results: The work reported in this paper seeks to bridge the gap between existing VR platforms and related literature in the field, on the one hand, and requirements regarding immersive virtual environments for the metaverse, on the other hand, by reporting a set of best practices which were used to build a social virtual environment that meets users' expectations and needs. Conclusions: Results suggest that carefully designed virtual environments can positively affect user experience and interaction within metaverse. The insights gained from this study offer valuable cues for developing immersive virtual environments for the metaverse to deliver more effective and engaging experiences. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a27cf22c98d04bd48cdef4e5596a0676 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2096-5796 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Virtual Reality & Intelligent Hardware |
| spelling | doaj-art-a27cf22c98d04bd48cdef4e5596a06762025-08-20T03:24:03ZengKeAi Communications Co., Ltd.Virtual Reality & Intelligent Hardware2096-57962025-06-017327929810.1016/j.vrih.2025.04.002Designing social immersive virtual environments for the Metaverse: The case study of MetaLibraryAlberto CANNAVÒ0Giorgio ARRIGO1Alessandro VISCONTI2Federico De LORENZIS3Fabrizio LAMBERTI4Corresponding author.; Department of Control and Computer Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Turin 10138, ItalyDepartment of Control and Computer Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Turin 10138, ItalyDepartment of Control and Computer Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Turin 10138, ItalyDepartment of Control and Computer Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Turin 10138, ItalyDepartment of Control and Computer Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Turin 10138, ItalyBackground: Over the last few years, the rapid advancement of technology has led to the development of many approaches to digitalization. In this respect, metaverse provides 3D persistent virtual environments that can be used to access digital content, meet virtually, and perform several professional and leisure tasks. Among the numerous technologies supporting the metaverse, immersive Virtual Reality (VR) plays a primary role and offers highly interactive social experiences. Despite growing interest in this area, there are no clear design guidelines for creating environments tailored to the metaverse. Methods: This study seeks to advance research in this area by moving from state-of-the-art studies on the design of immersive virtual environments in the context of metaverse and proposing how to integrate cutting-edge technologies within this context. Specifically, the best practices were identified by i) analyzing literature studies focused on human behavior in immersive virtual environments, ii) extracting common features of existing social VR platforms, and iii) conducting interviews with experts in a specific application domain. Specifically, this study considered the creation of a new virtual environment for MetaLibrary, a VR-based social platform aimed at integrating public libraries into metaverse. Several implementation challenges and additional requirements have been identified for the development of virtual environments (VEs). These elements were considered in the selection of specific cutting-edge technologies and their integration into the development process. A user study was also conducted to investigate some design aspects (namely lighting conditions and richness of the scene layout) for which deriving clear indications from the above analysis was not possible because different alternative configurations could be chosen. Results: The work reported in this paper seeks to bridge the gap between existing VR platforms and related literature in the field, on the one hand, and requirements regarding immersive virtual environments for the metaverse, on the other hand, by reporting a set of best practices which were used to build a social virtual environment that meets users' expectations and needs. Conclusions: Results suggest that carefully designed virtual environments can positively affect user experience and interaction within metaverse. The insights gained from this study offer valuable cues for developing immersive virtual environments for the metaverse to deliver more effective and engaging experiences.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2096579625000221MetaverseDesign guidelinesVirtual environmentsImmersive virtual realityUser studySocial platforms |
| spellingShingle | Alberto CANNAVÒ Giorgio ARRIGO Alessandro VISCONTI Federico De LORENZIS Fabrizio LAMBERTI Designing social immersive virtual environments for the Metaverse: The case study of MetaLibrary Virtual Reality & Intelligent Hardware Metaverse Design guidelines Virtual environments Immersive virtual reality User study Social platforms |
| title | Designing social immersive virtual environments for the Metaverse: The case study of MetaLibrary |
| title_full | Designing social immersive virtual environments for the Metaverse: The case study of MetaLibrary |
| title_fullStr | Designing social immersive virtual environments for the Metaverse: The case study of MetaLibrary |
| title_full_unstemmed | Designing social immersive virtual environments for the Metaverse: The case study of MetaLibrary |
| title_short | Designing social immersive virtual environments for the Metaverse: The case study of MetaLibrary |
| title_sort | designing social immersive virtual environments for the metaverse the case study of metalibrary |
| topic | Metaverse Design guidelines Virtual environments Immersive virtual reality User study Social platforms |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2096579625000221 |
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