Parallel Worlds: Spatial and Textual Representations of Information Structure in VR

Navigation is central to information seeking in electronic worlds. Previous research on the physical world and virtual ones has considered the impact of environmental structure on navigation and learning. Such structure can be either spatial or textual. I propose an exploratory study to evaluate the effects of combining spatial and textual representations of information structure in different ways in VR. By observing users in several virtual worlds with similar information structures, I hope to extract guidelines for the use of spatial and textual representations in VR design.