Designing for Confidence: Research-Driven VR Hardware Onboarding for New Users

Why It Matters…

Onboarding is the moment where user trust is won or lost. Removing friction early improves adoption, retention, and long-term engagement with VR ecosystems by making users feel more confident and knowledgeable from the very first session.

Objective

Identify and resolve early-onboarding friction points to increase new-user confidence and hardware usability, streamline setup, and improve the first-session experience.

Research Method

Mixed-methods research combining in-lab onboarding observation, cognitive walkthroughs, and quant/qual data collection.

Data Analytic Approach

• behavioral coding of user onboarding behaviors

• time-on-task and error rate analysis

• quant/qual metrics for each usability task

• thematic analysis of usability barriers

Results

• Identified pain points that created the majority of onboarding delays.

• Revealed information gaps driving uncertainty during hardware setup.

• Produced actionable hardware design and user education recommendations to improve hardware usability and user confidence