Identifying and characterizing the factors that affect presence in virtual environments has been acknowledged as a critical step to improving Virtual Reality (VR) applications in the built environment domain. In the search to identify those factors, the research objective was to test whether three-dimensional perception affects presence in virtual environments. A controlled within-group experiment utilizing perception and presence questionnaires was conducted, followed by data analysis, to test the hypothesized unidirectional association between three-dimensional perception and presence in two different virtual environments (non-immersive and immersive). Results indicate no association in either of the systems studied, contrary to the assumption of many scholars in the field but in line with recent studies on the topic. Consequently, VR applications in architectural design may not necessarily need to incorporate advanced stereoscopic visualization techniques to deliver highly immersive experiences, which may be achieved by addressing factors other than depth realism. As findings suggest that the levels of presence experienced by users are not subject to the display mode of a 3D model (whether immersive or non-immersive display), it may still be possible for professionals involved in the review of 3D models (e.g., designers, contractors, clients) to experience high levels of presence through non-stereoscopic VR systems provided that other presence-promoting factors are included.

A good level of understanding of design specifications by all stakeholders is the initial and a fundamental step towards effective communication in a design review setting. Certainly, one of the goals of designers during the review process is to ensure the design solutions are well understood. Recently, virtual reality (VR) systems have been adopted in an effort to improve this shared understanding of ongoing designs. However, the effectiveness and suitability of such systems to design review practices has not been rigorously tested yet. In this context, this paper describes a systematic usability study consisting of a mix of empirical and inspection-based methods (user testing and heuristics evaluation) that aimed to investigate the implications and usability issues from the adoption of an immersive virtual reality system in design review. The usability testing comprised the evaluation of three main aspects from the user standpoint: users’ cognitive performance, users’ interaction performance, and the system suitability to design review practices. The experiment consisted of expert designers performing tasks within the virtual environment and then responding to objective and subjective questions about their understanding of the virtual representation, their overall experience using the platform, and their personal assessment on heuristics regarding the system’s user interface. The usability evaluation provided evidence that the immersive virtual reality system is indeed efficient in communicating design solutions, which could improve communication quality during design review meetings. However, the heuristics evaluation (alone) revealed that the system has significant usability flaws and still requires improvements in its user interface. Nevertheless, since issues were rated as “minor usability problems,” improvements to the system are very likely. In light of the evaluation findings, the last part of this article discusses the extent to which the immersive virtual reality system could benefit the decision-making in design review, and provides some insights on potential improvements.

Construction safety climates can reflect organizational safety behavior and commitment, employees’ safety perceptions and attitudes, and the supervisory and support environments. Maintaining a healthy safety climate can help prevent workers from fatal accidents and illnesses. To enhance the safety climate and, consequently, improve safety performance at a construction site, it is very important to analyze the elements that affect the safety climate and are significant for different types of construction work organizations. Therefore, the main goal of this study was to develop a multi-spectra perception model to investigate which factors were considered critical from four key perspectives: managers, superintendents, skilled laborers, and general helpers. To achieve this goal, a survey questionnaire was conducted to collect empirical data from one commercial building construction project. Based on a stepwise regression analysis, it was revealed that the most significant factors enhancing the safety climate are: from the managers’ perspective, a combination of improvement in the support environment and reduction in work pressure; for superintendents and skilled laborers, increasing worker competence; and for general laborers, increasing worker involvement. This research contributes to a better understanding of the significant factors and provides a measure for each important role in enhancing the safety climate at a job site.

Recent studies have focused on various unmanned aircraft system (UAS) applications in the dynamic construction work environment. However, the human performance in human-integrated system (HIS) operations has rarely been investigated in this domain. In addition, it is very challenging to evaluate the human performance because such evaluation and analysis rely on various human factors. From the perspective of theoretical human-robot interaction (HRI) and cognitive science, the situation awareness (SA) and mental work-load (MWL) of human operators have significant effects on operator’s decision-making. Either SA or MWL measurement is representatively used to evaluate the human performance instead of considering many human factors. The main purpose of this paper is to develop a framework to quantify the SA and MWL and identify the nature of knowledge (NoK) of the human operators in the construction worksite. This study also provides the overview of background information related to theoretical HRI and cognitive concepts for UAS operations. The framework consists of three main phases: (1) NoK identification; (2) field experimentation; and (3) evaluation and analysis. This paper provides deep understanding of related concepts, the overall framework including details of each step, and expected outcomes. The expected outcomes are human performance measurement, and identification of any correlations among the performance, personal background, and SA/MWL, as well as identifying considerations to improve the SA/MWL performance.