Examination of User Emotions and Task Performance in Indoor Space Design Using Mixed-Reality

Abstract

Given the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting social distancing measures with inevitable telecommuting, capturing user emotions is essential as it affects both satisfaction and task performance. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze emotions and task performance in terms of dislike and personalized decision-making in indoor spaces. To facilitate experiments with participants, a mixed-reality environment was utilized with the Pleasure, Arousal, Dominance (PAD) test and cognitive tests. The results of the experiment conducted on 30 subjects identified that aroused and discontented emotions dominated in non-preferred spaces, but pleased, important, and autonomous emotions arose in personalized spaces, as determined through sentimental analysis and statistical methods. Although negative emotions were present in the aversion space, attention and execution abilities were high compared to the personalized space, but working memory was low. By conducting stepwise regression analysis, it was found that working in a visually unfavorable space, which caused an increase in controlled or controlling emotions, improved short-term work efficiency. In addition, important emotions did not have a positive effect on any task performance. However, with pleased and contented emotions in a personalized indoor space, long-term work efficiency was increased, as explained by the Yerkes-Dodson law.