Using Virtual Reality to Examine Hazard Perception in Package Design

Informing users about the correct hazard level associated with products can be one of the most important measures to help promote user safety while they handle hazardous household chemicals. The aim of this paper is to present pilot study’s results about the effectiveness of using a VR-based methodology to examine the influence of a container’s features (e.g., shapes) on the users’ perception of hazardousness. Previous works have mostly used 2D drawings for this type of study. Issues which may compromise the quality of future experiments: e.g., adequacy of VR devices, interaction quality, simulator-sickness, procedure and quality of the instruments (i.e., questionnaires) are discussed. Despite the fact that the key experiment has not yet been completed, very promising results have been obtained, suggesting that the VR simulator and the methodology adopted may provide a successful evaluation of the packages’ hazardousness.