Virtual Reality Interfaces for Improving User Performance and Well-Being: Design, Development, and Experimental Evaluations Across Various Application Domains

User performance and well-being are important factors during Virtual Reality (VR) interactions; the former determines the efficiency and safety of users, while the latter is essential for sustainable health. As VR is evolving to become a widespread interface, it must be evaluated to ensure that it effectively supports its users. This research address these aspects by examining diverse use cases that have been heavily proposed for VR: in high-stakes operational environments, such as autonomous vehicle teleoperation, the problem lies in balancing cognitive demands with interface design; in productivity work, text entry for accented characters remains underexplored; and for mental well-being, there is a lack understanding of how immersive affirmative interventions can mitigate public speaking anxiety and enhance skills and furthermore help in reducing acute stress with the help of immersive forest bathing. Hence, there is a need to establish an understanding and foster the development of VR interfaces that are efficient and restorative for its users.

To address these gaps, this research aims to optimize VR interface design for operational use-cases, specifically targeting the efficiency of autonomous vehicle monitoring while reducing the cognitive load of the teleoperators and investigation of different text-entry techniques for accented character entry in VR for different user groups. Beyond performance-oriented tasks, the research seeks to explore the potential of VR by comparing immersive visualization techniques against traditional methods for managing public speaking anxiety, and by evaluating whether enhancing forest bathing simulations with multisensory stimuli, such as olfactory cues, significantly enhances user restoration. Ultimately, this work intends to establish concrete design principles and empirical guidelines that facilitate the development of effective, evidence-based VR applications.