User experience of 360° video: the development of a conceptual framework

Instead of just viewing a single screen containing the content determined by the creator, viewers of 360° video, using smart phones and Virtual Reality (VR) Head Mounted Devices (HMD), have the freedom to look around 360° and view the video in any direction as though they were actually at the location where the video was made. 360° video therefore changes the rules for both video producers and consumers, giving rise to the need to understand User Experience (UX) of 360° video to inform content producers and assist HCI researchers in their investigations.

The aim of this research was to investigate the participants’ experience of 360° video in order to develop a conceptual framework of user experience of 360° video. The user experience of 360° video was investigated via a series of three user studies and one case study using a range of viewing platforms, namely VR HMDs, smart phones, flat screens and a CAVE (CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment).

After viewing a 360° video, participants took part in semi-structured interviews and shared their experience in their own words. Through thematic analysis of the transcribed interviews, prominent components of UX and their relationships with each other were derived and explored. The results of these studies were then synthesised into a conceptual framework, the UX360 framework, which aims to provide understanding of the user experience of 360° video to guide HCI researchers and 360° video content creators.

The UX360 framework could be used to guide future HCI research on the user experience of 360° video by identifying the relationships between elements of the framework and the effects that they have on the user’s experience. It could also provide understanding for 360° video content creators by identifying how the manipulation of specific elements of the framework could affect the user experience; assisting their creative decisions to produce the desired user experience.