Changes in Navigation Over Time: A Comparison of Teleportation and Joystick-based Locomotion

Little research has studied how people use Virtual Reality (VR) changes as they experience VR. This paper reports the results of an experiment investigating how users’ behavior with two locomotion methods changed over four weeks: teleportation and joystick-based locomotion. Twenty novice VR users (no more than 1 hour prior experience with any form of walking in VR) were recruited. They loaned an Oculus Quest for four weeks on their own time, including an activity we provided them with. Results showed that the time required to complete the navigation task decreased faster for joystick-based locomotion. Spatial memory improved with time, particularly when using teleportation (which starts disadvantaged to joystick-based locomotion). Also, overall cybersickness decreased slightly over time; two dimensions of cybersickness (nausea and disorientation) increased notably over time using joystick-based navigation.