Master's Thesis · 2026
How to mark interactable objects in a VR experience without breaking players' immersion into the game story.
A master's UI/UX research of interaction markers design in VR narration-based games — quantitative and qualitative between-subjects experiment with 35 participants across 3 conditions.
Abstract
This paper investigates the influence of interaction marker design in VR experiences on players' ability to become immersed in the narration of the game. Following diegetics, semiotics, and affordance theories, the researcher created a VR game "Echoes of Abandonment" with markers of interactable objects present in the digital room, used in the experiment.
The methodology consisted of participants playing the VR game, then filling out a questionnaire with the Narrative Engagement Scale (Busselle and Bilandzic, 2009) and Immersion Experience Questionnaire — Shortened Form (Cutting et al., 2025), followed by custom questions created by the researcher of this study. During the procedure, observations of gameplay and informal interviews served as additional data collection.
The procedure was repeated among 35 participants, divided into three conditions — diegetic markers, non-diegetic markers, and a control group. Narrative immersion was measured with two questionnaires — IEQ-SF and NES — and custom questions provided insight specific to the study's research question. Analysis of the quantitative data in SPSS pointed towards the null hypothesis, meaning there is no statistical influence across conditions on players' narrative immersion. However, the rest of the data points towards a more nuanced conclusion.
The study at a glance
Participants were randomly assigned to one of three marker conditions in Echoes of Abandonment, a VR experience about a child coping with their parents' divorce: diegetic markers (a brightness shader), non-diegetic markers (an exclamation mark icon), and a control group with no markers. Narrative immersion was assessed using the IEQ-SF and NES alongside custom Likert-scale items.
What I found
Marker design did not significantly affect narrative immersion.
ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests revealed no statistically significant differences between conditions, with effect sizes consistently below η² = .02. Both hypotheses — that diegetic markers would support immersion, and that non-diegetic markers would disturb it — were rejected.
Non-diegetic markers were perceived as clearer signifiers.
Open-ended questionnaire responses suggested participants in the non-diegetic condition tended to find the exclamation mark markers easier to interpret. Diegetic markers received more mixed responses — some appreciated their subtlety and immersion-preserving qualities, while others, particularly those with less gaming experience, found them insufficiently clear as signifiers.
Sound design may have acted as a confounding variable.
The audio design of Echoes of Abandonment appeared to create frustration across all conditions, potentially dampening narrative immersion scores uniformly. This suggests auditory UI deserves the same scrutiny as visual UI in VR research.
Marker design may matter less when narrative and UI operate on separate sensory channels.
In Echoes of Abandonment, the story unfolds auditorily while the markers are visual. This suggests the relationship between UI design and narrative immersion may be mediated by whether they share the same sensory modality — an interpretation that extends Köhle et al. (2021) from visually-driven VR shooters to narrative VR experiences.
Read the paper
The thesis is available in multiple formats depending on how deep you want to go.
This is a working draft submitted as part of the Master's of Game Technology programme at Breda University of Applied Sciences (2026). The version shared here may differ from the final examined version.
Design tips for VR developers
A planned next step from this research: a library of evidence-based design tips for VR developers working with diegetic and non-diegetic UI in narrative experiences.
Currently in development — check back, or reach out via the contact page to be notified.