Interface metaphors are thought to enable an intuitive and effective interaction with a user interface by allowing users to draw on existing knowledge and reducing the need for instructions. This makes metaphors a promising candidate to drive the development of locomotion interfaces for virtual reality (VR). Since creating metaphoric interfaces can be difficult, it is important to analyze how typical locomotion metaphors can support an intuitive interaction. We performed a qualitative online study to observe the effect of typical metaphors (Walking, Steering, Flying, and Teleportation) and the influence of perceived affordances and user background. Our analysis shows that users adapt the interface expectations induced by metaphors to fit the perceived affordances instead of changing them. Several interests, the age, education, and gender influenced the expectations regarding the VR locomotion interface. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of users' mental models of VR locomotion metaphors, which seem necessary for designing more intuitive locomotion.

The change of the user's viewpoint in an immersive virtual environment, called locomotion, is one of the key components in a virtual reality interface. Effects of locomotion, such as simulator sickness or disorientation, depend on the specific design of the locomotion method and can influence the task performance as well as the overall acceptance of the virtual reality system. Thus, it is important that a locomotion method achieves the intended effects. The complexity of this task has increased with the growing number of locomotion methods and design choices in recent years. Locomotion taxonomies are classification schemes that group multiple locomotion methods and can aid in the design and selection of locomotion methods. Like locomotion methods themselves, there exist multiple locomotion taxonomies, each with a different focus and, consequently, a different possible outcome. However, there is little research that focuses on locomotion taxonomies. We performed a systematic literature review to provide an overview of possible locomotion taxonomies and analysis of possible decision criteria such as impact, common elements, and use cases for locomotion taxonomies. We aim to support future research on the design, choice, and evaluation of locomotion taxonomies and thereby support future research on virtual reality locomotion.