Proposing Design Principles for Sustainable Fire Safety Training in Immersive Virtual Reality

Abstract

Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) technologies are frequently adopted by organizations for safety training. Safety training in IVR engages and motivates employees to develop skills in how to manage hazardous situations. By employing IVR for safety training, organizations and employees can develop safety knowledge and increase their sustainability awareness. In this paper we develop design principles for sustainable fire safety training in IVR. The principles were developed through an Action Design Research (ADR) case. The paper demonstrates how ADR can be used to design individual training environments and how the method supports the development of more generic design principles for such environments. The design principles are subsequently proposed as: Design for Multimodal Risk Perception, Design for Empathetic Safety Cognition, Design for Formative Hazard Inspection, and Design for Comfort in Uncomfortable Decision Making.