An Empathetic Approach to Human-Centric Requirements Engineering Using Virtual Reality

People who use software applications are different, including with significant cognitive differences such as neurodiversity. Capturing requirements for software that addresses these cognitive differences is hard for software engineers, especially when they do not have the same cognitive challenges.

We explored the use of virtual reality (VR) in assisting software engineers to better understand the perspectives of the end user for the purpose of human-centric requirements elicitation, with a focus on users diagnosed with attention- deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We conducted a pilot experiment using a virtual gym environment, instructing the participants to complete activities whilst under visual and auditory distractions similar to symptoms of ADHD. Results indicated an increase in understanding the perspectives of someone with ADHD and an awareness of potential challenges with software not intentionally designed for ADHD users.

Project Lead

Prof John Grundy

Investigators

A/Prof Thuong Hoang, FIT4003 student project team: Nicholas Chong, Emmanuel Chu, Adrian Nadonza, Sienna Marie Rodriguez, Sothearith Tith, Jin Shan, Yi Wang (Deakin University), Ben Cheng (Deakin University)

Using VR