Exploring the Impact of User Experience Elements on Virtual Reality for Emotion Regulation Through mVR-Real App

Virtual reality, a rapidly advancing technological development, has significantly evolved over the past few years, offering immersive experiences through headsets, gloves, or controllers that engage users in dynamic and captivating environments. Its applications span various fields, including video games, healthcare, education, and training simulations. However, there remains a gap in utilizing virtual reality for adolescent emotion regulation. This study explores the mVR-REAL app, designed to enhance social-emotional learning in teenagers by improving emotion regulation. Social-emotional learning is an educational approach aimed at developing essential socioemotional skills in adolescents. Sixteen participants engaged with the mVR-REAL app through virtual scene episodes using the Meta Quest 2 headset. The emotional responses and user feedback were measured using pre and post-test questionnaires with a Likert scale such as, strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree and strongly disagree. A numerical value was assigned to each hypothetical option on the scale. Analysis conducted with SPSS software revealed statistically significant improvements in user experience following the use of mVR-REAL. The findings suggest that mVR-REAL has the potential to enhance user experience, evoke strong emotional responses, and foster greater engagement compared to traditional applications. These insights will inform future large-scale testing of mVR-REAL, emphasizing the importance of emotional design, as well as psychological and cultural factors, in the development of virtual reality apps for emotion regulation. However, time-related challenges were identified due to the restricted duration of the VR session, highlighting the need for further research and refinement in future virtual reality app development.