How to catch prospective use? A comparative study of virtual environment movie and guided imaginary for projecting future users in a public space

Focusing on the design of a public space, we propose a methodological contribution to integrate possible future users to studies in prospective ergonomics. Our objective is to establish a rigorous protocol for comparing two methods of projecting potential usage. First, a projection interview based on a virtual environment movie and second, a Guided Imaginary Projection interview. We sought to determine to what extent these two methods provide participants with the ability to live a ‘quasi-experience’ of the space. This ‘quasi-experience’ is measured by a questionnaire inspired by the concepts of presence and absorption and by the analysis of the embodiment level of the discourse produced during the interviews, from embodied to general discourse. The results show that while the two methods produce similar results in terms of the level of projection experience, the virtual environment movie projection produces significantly more general discourse.