Size Matters: The Impact of Avatar Size on User Experience in Healthcare Applications
Navid Ashrafi, Francesco Vona, Sina Hinzmann, Juliane Henning, Maurizio Vergari, Maximilian Warsinke, Catarina Pinto Moreira, Jan-Niklas Voigt-Antons

TL;DR
This study explores how avatar size affects user experience, trust, and social presence in healthcare applications, revealing that medium-sized avatars are most preferred and that gender influences avatar preferences.
Contribution
It provides empirical evidence on the impact of avatar size on user perceptions and highlights gender-specific preferences in virtual healthcare environments.
Findings
Medium-sized avatars received the highest usability ratings.
Social presence strongly correlates with attractiveness and stimulation.
Gender differences influence avatar size preferences.
Abstract
The usage of virtual avatars in healthcare applications has become widely popular; however, certain critical aspects, such as social distancing and avatar size, remain insufficiently explored. This research investigates user experience and preferences when interacting with a healthcare application utilizing virtual avatars displayed in different sizes. For our study, we had 23 participants interacting with five different avatars (a human-size avatar followed by four smaller avatars in a randomized order) varying in size, projected on a wall in front of them. The avatars were fully integrated with an artificial intelligence chatbot to make them conversational. Users were asked to rate the usability of the system after interacting with each avatar and complete a survey regarding trust and an additional questionnaire on social presence. The results of this study show that avatar size…
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Taxonomy
TopicsVirtual Reality Applications and Impacts · Healthcare Technology and Patient Monitoring · Social Robot Interaction and HRI
