Consumer Subjective Impressions in Virtual Reality Environments: The Role of the Visualization Technique in Product Evaluation

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Congratulations for your paper that I appreciated a lot by its relatively original vision about several media used in product evaluation (and particularly with passive haptics) and how they can affect the product design and behavioral intentions.

When I was reading the introduction and research design sections, I was thinking that the results could be very interesting for new knowledge creation on the use of immersive virtual reality, eventually with passive haptics, to evaluate products.

However, although the results are sometimes not so much impressing as I thought, the paper seems to be solid enough in research design and methodologies used, as well interesting in the discussion section.

In your paper, it’s said that the results confirm the H3, although the statistical analysis showed no statistically significant differences in either of the two case studies (A1 and A2). I have doubts about how the descriptive statistics showed that participants felt more confident in their responses in the VRPH or R medium, and more insecure in VR, can be enough to confirm H3!

Keep doing good work! Thanks

Author Response

Reviewer: 1

1. In your paper, it’s said that the results confirm the H3, although the statistical analysis showed no statistically significant differences in either of the two case studies (A1 and A2). I have doubts about how the descriptive statistics showed that participants felt more confident in their responses in the VRPH or R medium, and more insecure in VR, can be enough to confirm H3.

We have revised our decision regarding H3. It is true that we cannot solely rely on the results of descriptive statistics to make this assertion. Therefore, we have decided to reject this hypothesis.

Reviewer 2 Report

The study provides a novel approach to product design visualization. Findings indicate that the visual medium used in product design evaluation can affect subjective impressions of the users.

The paper was a very good read and was clear to readers who are not in the field of product design. Two comments are provided below:

1) Is it possible to account for some of the insignificant findings in the two case studies? (Table 6 & Table 8 & Table 12). What might have been the reasons for insignificant outcomes for the various aspects in these tables? I'm just curious since I am not an expert in product design and consumer impressions.

2) What are some important indicators or criteria for successful product design? This might help the reader gain better understanding about consumer behaviors and product evaluation in marketing.

3) Please check the grammar again for minor mistakes. For example, the first sentence of the Conclusions section "Our study demonstrate..." --> demonstrate should be "demonstrates" or "demonstrated." 

The use of language is good in general. Proof-reading may be useful.

Author Response

1. Is it possible to account for some of the insignificant findings in the two case studies? (Table 6, Table 8 and Table 12). What might have been the reasons for insignificant outcomes for the various aspects in these tables? I'm just curious since I am not an expert in product design and consumer impressions.

               The discussion has been revised accordingly.

2. What are some important indicators or criteria for successful product design? This might help the reader gain better understanding about consumer behaviors and product evaluation in marketing.

We have enhanced the introduction section by incorporating significant key factors that can contribute to ensuring the success of a product. Additionally, we have included these references:

Chen, Y.: Neurological effect of the aesthetics of product design on the decision-making process of consumers. NeuroQuantology. 16, 501–506 (2018), https://doi.org/10.14704/nq.2018.16.6.1675

 Cooper, R.G.: The drivers of success in new-product development. Ind. Mark. Manag. 76, 36–47 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2018.07.005

Yoo, J., Kim, M.: The effects of online product presentation on consumer responses: A mental imagery perspective. J. Bus. Res. 67, 2464–2472 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2014.03.006

3. Please check the grammar again for minor mistakes. For example, the first sentence of the Conclusions section "Our study demonstrate...".

               The grammar has been checked throughout the manuscript.

Reviewer 3 Report

The authors report two case studies in which a group of participants evaluated different designs of a product typology as presented in VR, VR with passive haptics (VRPH) and a real setting (R) for the first case study, and VR and R for the second case study. The work is very interesting and well written, with only a few minor errors listed in sequence. Please note that the next commends are intended to improve paper quality and readers' understanding.

 

I believe the authors arguments are sound and the way the research was conducted was well performed, congratulations. Please fix some minor writing issues listed bellow.

 

More general comments and minor errors are listed as follows.

 

"respondents [39]" -> "respondents [39]."

" study, A total" -> " study, a total"

"Stacked bar charts for this case study is shown" -> "Stacked bar charts for this case study are shown"

"Our study demonstrate" -> "Our study demonstrates"

 

Author Response

1. Comments on the Quality of English Language.

               These grammar mistakes have been fixed.

Reviewer 4 Report

1.In the line 37, the author said the metaverse is changing how products are designed. Please provide more evidences and arguments.

2.In the context of big data, please argue the creativity and necessity of this research design and research method.

3.Using the Virtual Reality tools to buy things online does not change the real demand of customers. If the participants exactly need not a watering can, how does the Virtual Reality tool impact their selection? That is to say, how do you confirm the interaction medium will impact the real demand of customers and the design of the product?

Obliviously, although this review involves a very interesting field, but the the research method looks more simple and traditional. Simple survey cannot capture the real demand of large-scale customers, and also cannot feedback valuable information to the producers.

The English is good.

Author Response

Reviewer 4:

1. In the line 37, the author said the metaverse is changing how products are designed. Please provide more evidence and arguments.

               We have added additional information to support our statement in line 45.

2. In the context of big data, please argue the creativity and necessity of this research design and research method.

Although Big Data is known for gathering large amounts of information from different sources, this cannot be processed using conventional techniques due to its complexity, making it necessary to use machine learning, data mining, or artificial intelligence. Our study, on the other hand, gathers a relatively small amount of data, limited to the specific needs of this research, which makes it feasible to use more conventional research methods based on experimental designs already validated through various publications, such as those referenced in section 2.

3. Using the Virtual Reality tools to buy things online does not change the real demand of customers. If the participants exactly need not a watering can, how does the Virtual Reality tool impact their selection? How do you confirm the interaction medium will impact the real demand of customers and the design of the product?

The authors express gratitude for your feedback. The primary objective of the study is not to assess the impact on customer demand but rather to investigate how the medium influences an individual's evaluation process. While it is acknowledged that online purchases may not exhibit significant variations in an individual's buying decision (as confirmed by the rejection of H2 in our study), it does not negate the possibility of differences in the individual's opinion upon receiving the product at their houses. This aspect is precisely what our research aims to demonstrate. This can have an impact on the product evaluation in the design process, which can lead to errors when designing a product, and is something that must be taken into account.

4. Obliviously, although this review involves a very interesting field, but the research method looks more simple and traditional. Simple survey cannot capture the real demand of large-scale customers and cannot feedback valuable information to the producers.

Authors understand that our research may be perceived as simple and traditional due to the use of surveys and self-report questionnaires. However, we would like to emphasize that these methods are widely used and recognized in market research and product evaluation. Additionally, the use of the Semantic Differential allows us to capture participants' subjective perceptions and provides a quantitative measure of their evaluations. It is important to consider that the aim of our research is to analyze the influence of visualization mediums on the evaluation of different models of a specific product. While surveys may have limitations in capturing the demand of large-scale customers (especially at a cultural level, where differences may exist), our focus is on understanding the individual perceptions of participants and how these visualization mediums affect their subjective evaluation or a specific product (i.e., watering cans). Furthermore, it is important to note that self-report studies can provide valuable information about consumer preferences and attitudes, as well as identify patterns and trends in product evaluations. By combining these results with other research techniques, such as qualitative studies or behavioral data analysis, we can obtain a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of consumer responses to different product models and the effects of visualization mediums. In future work, we will explore the possibility of incorporating eye-tracking and facial measurement techniques to complement our research approach to solve this problem. These measures will allow us to gain a better understanding of participants' responses when evaluating different product models across various visualization mediums.