Experiential approaches to perception response in virtual worlds

Analysis of public behaviour has been referred to as the experiential approach to landscape assessment. The approach has not been widely used because of the time and cost involved and the difficulty of controlling the many variables which influence real world behaviour. Developments in the construction and presentation of virtual environments suggest that it is time to reconsider experiential approaches to preference research rejected as too complex in the 1980’s. Some aspects of behaviour in the landscape can now be effectively observed in a computer generated world at reasonable cost and with more complete control of variables. This paper explores monitoring of movement and development in virtual worlds and presents two preliminary experiments concerned with movement choices. The options and difficulties for application in an urban design context are reviewed.