GREATER VARIANCE IN WALLPAPER COLOR EVALUATION IN USERS WITH VISUAL SENSORY HYPERSENSITIVITY REVEALED IN A VIRTUAL REALITY EXPERIMENT

Abstract

Since significant variation was observed in the preferences of students with visual sensory hypersensitivity for wall colors while designing a sensory room, we examined whether the greater variance in the visually hypersensitive users could be seen in more controlled experimental settings using virtual reality (VR) wallpaper. The Japanese versions of the Visual Discomfort Scale (VDS) and Trypophobia Questionnaire (TQ-J) were used to identify 10 participants with visual sensory hypersensitivity. They evaluated five types of wallpapers in a virtual room using four adjective pairs on a 7-point scale and a 5-point Likert scale. Visually hypersensitive participants demonstrated a greater variance in the ratings of comfort and focus than normal controls. The findings imply that wallpaper design should be carefully considered when catering to individuals with visual sensory hypersensitivity and suggest that incorporation of color-adjustable lights could be effective for sensory rooms to better accommodate their needs. The effectiveness and validity of wallpaper design evaluation using VR should be further investigated.