Research Methodologies across the Physical - Virtual Reality Spectrum.

Over the last couple of years, there has been a big push toward making immersive and mixed technologies available to the general public. Yet, designing for these new technologies is challenging, as users need to position virtual objects in 3D space. The current state-of-the art technologies used to access these virtual environments (e.g., Head-mount displays (HMD)s also presents additional challenges for designers when considering depth perception issues that affect user precision. Moreover, these challenges are exacerbated when designers consider accessibility needs of special populations. To make new immersive and mixed technologies more accessible, we propose a tutorial at UbiComp / ISWC 2023 to discuss design strategies, research methodologies, and implementation practices with special populations using technologies across the physical-virtual reality spectrum. In this tutorial participants will learn how to make these technologies more accessible by (1) teaching students of the tutorial how to design, prototype, and evaluate these technologies using empirical research. We aim to (2) bring together researchers, practitioners, and students who are interested in making immersive and mixed technologies more accessible and (3) identify common problems when designing new user interfaces.