Publications

The Effect of Spatial Ability on Immersive 3D Drawing

C&C '19: Proceedings of the 2019 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Creativity and Cognition

Publication date: June 23, 2019

Mayra Donaji Barrera Machuca, Wolfgang Stuerzlinger, Paul Asente

Virtual Reality (VR) headsets have made immersive 3D drawing available to the general public. However, compared to 2D drawing the presence of an additional dimension, makes sketching in VR challenging, since creating precise strokes that are positioned as intended in all three dimensions imposes higher demands on the users’ motor and spatial skills, as well as their perception. Another challenge users face is creating accurate strokes that are positioned correctly relative to previous ones, as they may need to use different views to plan their next hand movement. In this paper, we analyze the behaviours of users with different spatial abilities while drawing in VR. Our results indicate that there are different types of behaviours that affect different aspects of the drawings. We also found that the user’s spatial ability affects the shape of the drawing, but not the stroke quality. Finally, we give recommendations for designing 3D drawing interfaces.

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