Patil, K; Ayer, S K; Bhandari, S; Hallowell, M R and Perry, L A (2025) Bringing reality to virtual reality: The role of environmental richness in improving construction practitioners' VR experience. Construction Innovation, 25(7), pp. 358-383. ISSN 1471-4175
Abstract
Purpose – This study aims to investigate how environmental richness in virtual construction environments influences construction practitioners' behavior and presence. It aims to identify elements within these environments that significantly contribute to an enhanced sense of presence, addressing the gap in understanding the relationship between environmental richness and ecological validity in virtual safety training. Design/methodology/approach – A mixed-methods study involving 28 full-time construction practitioners was conducted. Participants navigated two virtual environments – a "rich" version with nonhazardous, realistic details and a "bare" version with minimal environmental richness. Data were collected through eye-tracking, positional analysis, presence questionnaires and semistructured interviews. The study used exploratory, confirmatory and explanatory analyses to evaluate behavioral impacts, statistical differences in presence scores and thematic insights into participants' experiences. Findings – Environmental richness significantly impacted participants' sense of presence, with the rich version producing higher presence scores (p = 0.018). Qualitative data highlighted that nonhazardous elements, such as terrain details, climatic conditions and virtual co-workers, enhanced realism and immersion. Heatmaps revealed wider visual attention and movement patterns in the rich environment, indicating greater engagement. Practical implications – The findings suggest that investing in nonhazardous elements, often overlooked in virtual reality (VR) development due to resource constraints, can enhance presence and realism in virtual construction environments. This can lead to more ecologically valid training experiences that better replicate real-world scenarios, ultimately improving hazard recognition and decision-making skills. Originality/value – Prior VR-based safety training has often lacked ecological validity, i.e. missing realistic site context or social dynamics, which may limit behavioral realism. This study addresses that gap by comparing a richly detailed virtual construction site against a bare version, to examine how added realism impacts users' sense of presence and safety behaviors. By providing empirical evidence on the role of environmental richness in virtual construction environments, it emphasizes the importance of nonhazardous elements in enhancing presence, offering actionable insights for designing more effective VR-based safety training solutions.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | building services; construction management; construction technology; digitalization; health and safety; innovation; it/CAD/VR |
| Index terms: | digitalization, movement, virtual environment, health and safety, interview, construction practitioner, construction site, questionnaire, resource constraint, evidence, decision-making, methodology, climatic condition, building service, safety behaviour, validity, presence, dynamics, virtual reality, construction technology, realism, safety training |
| Subjects: | climate science, health behaviours and lifestyles, evaluation and assessment methods, digital engineering, environmental science, digital technology, operations management, health safety and environment, research methods, engineering systems, data collection methods, virtual reality, work location, professional development, education and knowledge transfer, systems engineering, occupational health and safety management, decision analysis |
| Topics: | Sustainability, Risk Management, Project Management, Engineering Principles, Health and Safety, Research Practice, Information Management, Site Management, Digital Applications |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here