Design, implementation and evaluation of a virtual showroom

Abstract

This paper presents the design, development and evolution of Virtual Showroom that focused on interactivity in manipulating the capabilities of VRML technology. The Virtual Showroom provides virtual furniture that can be viewed, navigated and interacted by the user. Besides that, users are given an option to create the interior design of their own room by dragging virtual furniture provided. Development process involves specific process such as planning, object modeling, navigation, web page integration and evaluation. Evaluation has been done using questionnaire by 30 participants that concentrate on six criteria such as ease of navigation, effectiveness of the interface and user acceptance. Result shows that all of the participants give positive feedback regarding the evaluated criteria and it proves that the objectives of the project have been successfully achieved and able to satisfy both the developer and customers. The development of Virtual Showroom showed that it is possible to have a virtual furniture shop that provided full control for the user while navigating. This can gave a new perspective for the user while do online shopping. The next step is to enhance the application by integrating avatar in order to help first time users in navigating the virtual showroom.