Virtual fieldwork on a ship’s bridge: virtual reality-reconstructed operation scenarios as contextual substitutes for fieldwork in design education

Designing for professional, high-risk user contexts often implies limited accessibility for interaction designers to conduct field research and field testing, and the measures taken by most universities in Norway in 2020 to prevent COVID-19 spread have further contributed to the problem of achieving the contextual insight needed throughout the design process by severely restricting travel for research purposes. In this paper, we describe the use of virtual reality-reconstructed operation scenarios (VRROS) for Arctic-going vessels implemented in support of and as a substitute for the contextual aspects of fieldwork in the education of master’s students studying interaction design. The virtual reality rig contains three scenarios contextualizing ships’ bridges and their surroundings originally developed for research on designing navigation and operation applications using augmented reality technology. We evaluate whether aspects of the VRROS can substitute for real fieldwork by evaluating students’ use of the VRROS using a student questionnaire. Finally, we discuss the value and potential of using VRROS as a supplement and support when studying how to design for hard-to-reach contexts in the future.