Comfort & safety
Presence
Presence is the subjective sensation of 'being there' inside an immersive experience, usually inferred in XR analytics from continuity of motion, stable interaction and absence of disengagement cues.
Presence is the metric that matters most for VR training, location-based VR and narrative experiences. It can't be measured directly, but it can be approximated by combining locomotion stability, controller engagement and lack of discomfort indicators.
Academic literature separates spatial presence (feeling located in the virtual space), social presence (feeling co-located with others) and self-presence (feeling embodied). XR analytics platforms typically approximate the first two using motion-continuity metrics and interaction density, and leave self-presence to purpose-built research instruments.
Why it matters
Presence is the single strongest correlate of retention and learning transfer in immersive experiences. A VR training module with high task completion but low presence rarely produces the on-the-job behaviour change that justified the budget. Measuring it, even indirectly, is what lets VR L&D teams defend the medium to stakeholders.
Example
Two versions of a training scenario score identically on completion rate. Presence proxies (locomotion stability, sustained gaze at task objects, low disengagement) score 24% higher on version B. Retesting learners two weeks later confirms 18% better knowledge retention on B.