| Bachelor thesis | Virtual reality | 3D |
During the spring of 2025—my final semester—I once again worked with virtual reality. This time, we developed a new program for surgical nurses, designed for the operating department at Mälarsjukhuset, Eskilstuna. As before, my focus was on 3D modeling.
In addition to the creative aspect of my thesis project, I also wrote a research paper where I explored the concept of presence and immersion in relation to usefulness.
This is the papers abstract:
This bachelor thesis in interaction design explores how visual content affects the experience of presence and perceived usefulness in a virtual training environment for operating room nurses. Two versions of a VR prototype were developed in Unity – one with high visual detail and one with a more minimalistic design – and tested by twelve operating room nurses. Results showed that the visually reduced version slightly increased the experience of presence, while the visually richer version was rated as more useful. Thus, no clear correlation between presence and perceived usefulness could be established. The study emphasizes the importance of technical stability and the critical value of iterative processes in human centered design, especially when developing of VR-based healthcare training.
Here are some photos from the data collection and some screenshots from the virtual experience + the 3D-models created by me in Blender.
A scrub nurse in an operation room pointing towards the ceiling
An operation room table with lots of surgical tools on
Surgical forceps
