Immersive stories for health are 360-degree videos that intend to alter viewer perceptions about behaviors detrimental to health. They have potential to inform public health at scale, however, immersive story design is still in early stages and largely devoid of best practices. This paper presents a focus group study with 147 viewers of an immersive story about binge drinking experienced through VR headsets and mobile phones. The objective of the study is to identify aspects of immersive story design that influence attitudes towards the health issue exhibited, and to understand how health information is consumed in immersive stories. Findings emphasize the need for an immersive story to provide reasoning behind character engagement in the focal health behavior, to show the main character clearly engaging in the behavior, and to enable viewers to experience escalating symptoms of the behavior before the penultimate health consequence. Findings also show how the design of supporting characters can inadvertently distract viewers and lead them to justify the detrimental behavior being exhibited. The paper concludes with design considerations for enabling immersive stories to better inform public perception of health issues.

中文翻译：

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健康信息的沉浸式故事：VR 中暴饮暴食的设计考虑

身临其境的健康故事是 360 度视频，旨在改变观众对有害健康行为的看法。它们有可能大规模地为公共卫生提供信息，但是，沉浸式故事设计仍处于早期阶段，并且在很大程度上缺乏最佳实践。本文介绍了一项焦点小组研究，有 147 名观众通过 VR 耳机和手机体验了一个关于酗酒的沉浸式故事。该研究的目的是确定沉浸式故事设计中影响对所展示的健康问题的态度的各个方面，并了解如何在沉浸式故事中消费健康信息。调查结果强调需要一个身临其境的故事来提供角色参与焦点健康行为背后的推理，以显示主角清楚地参与行为，并使观众能够在倒数第二个健康后果之前体验到不断升级的行为症状。调查结果还表明，配角的设计如何在不经意间分散观众的注意力，并引导他们为所展示的有害行为辩解。该论文最后提出了设计考虑，使沉浸式故事能够更好地告知公众对健康问题的看法。