Managing multiple activities in virtual reality (VR) is often hindered by fragmented workflows and disruptive application switching. We present JourneyVR, a metaphorical interaction model designed for spatial and sequential workflows that reframes tasks as continuous journeys rather than isolated sessions. Users construct a Journey Map as a layout of islands (tasks) and bridges (transitions), which expands into an immersive world where activities unfold as a coherent, embodied narrative. Through a formative study, a controlled comparison, and an expert evaluation, JourneyVR was shown to enhance experiential continuity, intention to use, and overall satisfaction compared to using a conventional app launcher. Participants highlighted how the metaphor fosters motivation and achievement, while we identify boundaries regarding task type, scalability, and flexibility. Our findings demonstrate that framing sequential activities as navigable journeys can transform fragmented tasks into meaningful narratives, offering concrete guidelines for sustained engagement and more flexible workflows in immersive environments.

Navigation is a core task in VR that must be well supported. Interface choices shape task performance (e.g., search), viewing experience, and the sense of presence and immersion. Mini-maps are widely recommended and often help with these goals. However, the mini-map may also increase mental and physical workload and may even cause discomfort, exacerbating the already-likely-to-exist cybersickness. In this work, we compare two virtual navigation conditions, one with the mini-map and the other without, to investigate and reexamine their various effects, especially on cybersickness, an important and overlooked aspect of the VR experience. While the experiment reconfirmed the previously known fact that the map could enhance search task/navigational performance, it also caused or worsened cybersickness symptoms, especially for those possessing relatively lesser spatial abilities. The results indicate the need to revise the interaction design guidelines in VR regarding the pros and cons of using mini-maps for navigation and search.

Locomotion is an important task in many virtual reality (VR) applications. Locomotion requires two different directional settings for: (1) translation to a target, and (2) body rotation. Conventional locomotion methods mostly make use of the hand-held controller for such directional control. The controller-based directional setting may not be natural, as in real life, humans set directions with the gaze, often together with the head/body rotation. Note that the view direction is independently and naturally controlled by the head (or gaze) direction. In this paper, we propose to use the peripheral gaze for body rotation, seamlessly together with the foveal gaze for the view control, so that the two tasks practically do not interfere with one another. In the comparative study, the peripheral gaze showed similar task performance to the controller-based rotation but with reduced VR sickness and improved usability.

The extent of virtual reality (VR) sickness varies widely among users, as each user has different sensitivities to diverse causes of VR sickness. This can make prescribing a single particular reduction technique difficult and ineffective. In this poster, we present preliminary work examining the more effective and preferred sickness-reduction techniques for a given user under varied sickness-inducing motions. Based on the user-specific information collected using VR content, a customized strategy is developed for a given user and applied to the same VR content. We report the experimental results for testing the effectiveness of the customized reduction technique, comparing it to a single particular reduction method.