Evaluating customer experience of using virtual reality technology for interior design projects: case study of projects for an interior design agency in Medina

The extensive development of virtual reality (VR) technology in all aspects of life has been positively reflected in several areas, including architecture and interior design. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the experience of clients of interior design projects in using virtual reality technology to visualize the final outputs. The study used a qualitative approach through interviews with eight clients of interior design projects for commercial and residential projects, noting their physical emotions such as hand movements, face, standing and sitting, and their spoken words during the virtual reality experience, and the time spent during this experience. The interviews were divided into two types: the first, with clients, included eliciting the client's opinion of the virtual reality experience. The second was with four in-house designers, to see how effective they considered virtual reality to be in design projects. The result of this study suggests that using virtual reality technology is somewhat more successful for commercial projects than for residential ones. It appeared that the effectiveness of the technology led to the ease of perception of the client and increased confidence in the work of the interior design agencies, thus saving time, effort, and money. And that the virtual reality experience increased the clients’ confidence in their ability to visualize the final output of the design, which contributed to increasing the profits of the interior design office. It is expected that the clients of commercial projects had greater interaction because the financial returns of commercial projects are more than residential. It is hoped that the results of this study will help draw the attention of company owners in the field of interior design to the effectiveness of this technology by creating a virtual environment that contributes to convincing customers of the appropriateness of their designs and avoiding waste of resources. This technology also provides the clients with a complete visualization of the project before implementation. To make decisions about the project design and to identify proposals, design modifications and undesirable designs before starting the implementation of the project.