Influence of presentation means on industrial product evaluations with potential users: a first study by comparing tangible virtual reality and presenting a product in a real setting

Nowadays, virtual reality allows products to be presented to potential users, but as they cannot feel them physically, their perception of some product attributes can be distorted. Conversely, the mixture of visual and touch feelings that tangible virtual reality (TVR) offers could act as a similar approach to knowing products in real settings. This is a first study to compare the evaluation of product attributes presented in a real setting and by tangible virtual reality to verify the possible equivalence of both means. The semantic differential method was used to evaluate product attributes by creating a semantic scale with 16 bipolar pairs. Seventy-seven people (mean age of 21.7) evaluated one product by both means in an alternate viewing order. The results revealed that the product that was chosen was rated with more positive attributes in some bipolar pairs when experienced via TVR, while it was better rated in others when experienced in a real environment. The Wilcoxon test ( α = 0.05) corroborated that the presentation means used to evaluate the product influenced the evaluation of 15 of 16 attributes.