# Usability of Virtual Reality Application Through the Lens of the User Community: A Case Study

## TL;DR

This study investigates VR application usability by analyzing user feedback from community platforms, revealing that most issues align with Nielsen's heuristics, thus aiding early-stage development.

## Contribution

It demonstrates that community feedback can be effectively mapped to established usability heuristics, guiding VR developers in improving usability.

## Key findings

- 77% of feedback aligns with Nielsen's heuristics
- Few feedback items map to VR-specific heuristics
- Community feedback can inform early usability improvements

## Abstract

The increasing availability and diversity of virtual reality (VR) applications highlighted the importance of their usability. Function-oriented VR applications posed new challenges that are not well studied in the literature. Moreover, user feedback becomes readily available thanks to modern software engineering tools, such as app stores and open source platforms. Using Firefox Reality as a case study, we explored the major types of VR usability issues raised in these platforms. We found that 77% of usability feedbacks can be mapped to Nielsen's heuristics while few were mappable to VR-specific heuristics. This result indicates that Nielsen's heuristics could potentially help developers address the usability of this VR application in its early development stage. This work paves the road for exploring tools leveraging the community effort to promote the usability of function-oriented VR applications.