The metaverse and immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are becoming increasingly important in consumers' everyday lives. At the same time, they entail new risks - for example in terms of data protection, mental health or social participation.
Against this backdrop, the ConPolicy - Institute for Consumer Policy is investigating the opportunities and risks of the metaverse from a consumer perspective on behalf of the DIN Consumer Council. The aim is to gain scientifically sound insights into the design of a safe and consumer-friendly metaverse and to derive practical recommendations for policy and standardization.
A mixed methods approach is used for this purpose: In addition to a comprehensive literature and legal analysis, focus groups with users and relatives will be conducted and two online surveys with 200 participants each will be implemented. Finally, an interdisciplinary expert workshop will discuss the results in order to develop consumer-friendly design principles.
Further information on the project can be found here.