델파이 기법을 활용한 메타버스 장소성 평가항목 개발

초록

(Background and Purpose) The metaverse has emerged as a platform connecting physical and virtual worlds, driving new industrial ecosystems across gaming, education, and business. Within this context, placeness—the concept describing how a space becomes a meaningful place through human experience and interaction—has been identified as a key factor for enhancing user presence and immersion in virtual environments. While prior research on placeness and presence has predominantly focused on physical environments, the mechanisms through which placeness forms in metaverse spaces remain underexplored. This study aims to theoretically examine the concept of placeness within the metaverse and to develop practical evaluation criteria that reflect the unique characteristics of digital space, drawing on classical placeness theory alongside recent discussions of digital sense of place. (Method) A Delphi study was conducted with a panel of 12 experts in virtual reality, game design, and user experience (UX), each with more than 3 years of relevant experience. Panelists were recruited through academic and industry networks combined with snowball sampling, and all 12 participated in every round across three iterations (100% response rate at each round). The first-round Delphi survey generated 31 candidate items; based on expert consensus, 5 items were excluded in the second round (3 deleted, 2 merged into related items), yielding 26 items. In the third round, these 26 items were rated for importance and relevance on a 5-point Likert scale. Content Validity Ratio (CVR; Lawshe, 1975), coefficient of variation (stability), degree of convergence, and degree of consensus were calculated. Items were also reclassified into four conceptual domains to examine domain-level representativeness.A priori termination criteria were set at CV < 0.5 and consensus ≥ 0.75. (Results) The 26-item set showed a mean of 4.29 (SD = 0.61), with stability = 0.14, convergence = 0.45, consensus = 0.89, and CVR = 0.78, indicating overall stable and well-agreed expert opinions. However, item-level analysis revealed 5 items falling below Lawshe's CVR threshold of 0.56 for a 12-member panel. Excluding these items yielded a final set of 21 evaluation criteria, for which all indices improved (mean = 4.37, SD = 0.55, stability = 0.13, convergence = 0.36, consensus = 0.92, CVR = 0.90). Domain-level analysis showed that the social domain had relatively lower CVR and item retention than the other domains.The final items broadly reflect spatial, sensory-interactive, social, and emotional-semantic dimensions of user experience in metaverse environments. (Conclusions) This study extends placeness theory into the metaverse context and by developing metaverse-native evaluation items through expert Delphi consensus rather than adapting existing physical-space instruments. The resulting 21-item set offers practical guidance for metaverse platform design and operation aimed at enhancing user immersion and presence. As content validity was established through expert judgment alone, future research should empirically validate and generalize these items—through factor analysis and reliability testing with actual metaverse users—across diverse platform types.

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