Dear Colleagues,

Technological advances, taking place during the last decade, triggered the design and development of a variety of novel interactive systems that seamlessly integrate both real and virtual elements in a unified environment, along with natural and multi-modal user interfaces enabled by a variety of technologies and wearables. The complexity of the categorization of such environments and their continuous evolvement led to the emergence of the term extended reality (XR), where the X stands for any already developed, or future technology, enabling such environments to exist. Currently, XR includes augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and virtual reality (VR), i.e., the most predominant categories of systems and experiences combining real and virtual elements. Nevertheless, newly introduced technologies and interaction techniques continuously emerge in the field of XR, greatly affecting the experience of the users when immersed in XR environments, raising a need for further studies regarding usability and user experience. This Special Issue servers as an opportunity for researchers to present their high-quality works towards user experience in the continuously growing and changing field of XR.

Keywords

-User experience studies in XR environments

-Theoretical frameworks and user experience models for XR applications

-Human–computer interaction in XR environments

-XR applications user studies/surveys

-Shared/multiuser XR environments

-Cognitive studies in XR environments

-XR technologies development and evaluation

-Usability and accessibility of XR technologies