Using virtual-reality as user interface
I want to know about how to use a virtual-reality as user interface.
Examples of virtual-reality interfaces are modern time AAA role playing games, like "The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim", "The Witcher 3" or "World of Warcraft". However, here the experience of being in that virtual reality is the goal itself.
What I am asking about is the notion of operating a software via a virtual reality which goal is some other task, e.g. accounting, data analysis, server management, enterprise resource planning and the like.
This question might be related to gamification, but is more specific, because gamification could also about reward systems and the like. In my question I want to know about the man-machine interaction.
The main advantages I see are that virtual realities, e.g. in games, are
- enaging, thus encouraging the user to use the software and
- intuitive, so is possible to operate those environments with relatively little instruction. This also includes that users are pretty easily able to navigate within those environments and do not forget how to operate within that environment. The main reason I see for that is that they use a rich set of metaphors that are already know from our real world.
Specific questions:
- Do specific attempts of using virtual reality as user interfaces of "serious" applications already exist?
- Are there guidelines for such a user interface, additionally to general heuristics like https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/
