Virtual reality has been a popular training tool for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in recent years. Although virtual reality was proven to be a promising tool for individuals with ASD by many previous studies, effects of virtual reality properties on user experience is still an unexplored area. More comparison studies and reliable data are needed to identify the benefits of different VR methods and properties, and leverage the future VR systems. In this dissertation, we explored effects of virtual reality properties on user experience of high functioning individuals with ASD with four different serious game experiments. The first experiment consisted of a virtual reality serious game system for vocational training of individuals with ASD. Although this experiment was focused on the effectiveness of virtual reality training on vocational skills of individuals with ASD and was not comparative; during the user study with 9 neurotypical and 9 high functioning ASD individuals, several observations regarding the effects of virtual reality properties on user experience have been performed. The next three experiments investigated the following: effects of instruction methods on user performance with virtual reality warehouse serious game, effects of visual fidelity and view zoom on user performance with a virtual reality investigation serious game, and effects of environmental clutter and motion on user performance with a virtual reality searching serious game. These three experiments were evaluated with user studies of 15 neurotypical and 15 high functioning ASD individuals. Our motivation was to provide positive contribution to the design and development of future virtual reality serious games targeting individuals with ASD so that more benefits could be gained from these applications. Results of the virtual reality for vocational rehabilitation experiment indicated that virtual reality provided effective training especially for the money management, cleaning and social skills of high functioning individuals with ASD. The distracters in the form of background motion and audio did not affect the performance of the participants significantly. Based on the results of the instruction methods experiment, using animated instructions and avoiding verbal instructions in virtual environments was recommended for an audience of high functioning individuals with ASD. The visual fidelity and view zoom experiment’s results indicated that using low visual fidelity and normal view zoom are better design principles for training applications targeting high functioning individuals with ASD. The results of the experiment on clutter and motion in virtual worksp aces suggested that using no clutter and no motion in training applications targeting high functioning individuals with ASD would provide better user experience. Several other design guidelines based on data analysis and observation were shared in the study, with the aim of leveraging future virtual reality serious games targeting high functioning individuals with ASD.

As technology is becoming ever more present in the world, the use of simulators as a teaching tool is more prevalent than ever, with good evidence to back up their usefulness. Drivers’ education is one area among many that is seeing this change. These types of simulators are often classified by their level of fidelity, or how alike the simulator is to reality. However, fidelity is a far from precise term with many sub-categories that different researchers treat differently. This means, along with a lack of research, that the knowledge on how fidelity affects learning in simulations is diffuse. This study aimed to investigate how specifically changing the immersive feeling of a truck simulator affected the speed of learning to reverse with a virtual truck and trailer. More immersion was achieved by constructing a crude roof and walls on the simulator mimicking the inside of a vehicle. Results showed that there was no significant increase in the learning speed. However, there was a relatively near significant difference (p=0.148) between the groups, where more immersion was linked to faster learning. Participants also judged the simulator as being more useful in their learning if experiencing the immersive setup, which could be a potential cause of the near significant difference. Because of the low sample size of 23, no definitive conclusions could be drawn from this study. Taken together, it seems that a larger study stands a good chance of revealing the effect simulator fidelity can have on learning from a relatively simple change of immersion.