Designers' Expectations from Virtual Product Experience in Metaverse

Virtual spaces and immersive environments have been the focal point of HCI research for years. However, the Metaverse poses new challenges and opportunities for user experience in the industry and literature. One significant gap lies in understanding the expectations and perspectives of architects, product designers, and fashion designers regarding their desire to use the Metaverse for exploring new interactions with users. In this study, we explore the anticipations of 34 designers from various design fields, uncovering valuable insights into how these professionals envision integrating the Metaverse into their work and its potential impact on user engagement. Through semi-structured interviews, we identified three critical themes that are crucial to designers' engagement with the Metaverse: (1) Ambient experiences, which delve into the environmental aspects of design within the Metaverse; (2) Representation of Avatars, which examines the importance of customizable and diverse user representations, embodiment, and user interaction; and finally, (3) The design of collaborative interaction in these virtual spaces. Our study contributes to the HCI literature by providing a unique lens into designers' views of the Metaverse, reporting insights from non-Metaverse user designers, and suggest future directions.