"I Shot the Interviewer!": The Effects of In-VR Interviews on Participant Feedback and Rapport

The integration of questionnaires into virtual reality experiences has recently been proposed as a way to reduce the potential biases introduced through the negative effects of leaving VR, however there has been little attention paid to how qualitative interviews could similarly be integrated into the virtual world for the purposes of user evaluation. In this paper we explore how conducting interviews within the virtual environment may affect the outcome of the evaluation and the relationship between participant and interviewer, and how this may differ with and without visual representation of the interviewer through use of an avatar. We conclude that in-VR interviews are a valid and promising method of data collection for user evaluation with similar data quality to in-person interviews, but that the interviewer should have a visual presence in the environment to maintain their relationship with the participant and the perceived realism of the environment.