Nowadays, virtual reality has been considered one of the fastest-growing media, covering various well-known domains of applications such as healthcare, fashion, sport, education and many others (Virtual Reality Society, 2017). Apart from these common areas of applications, virtual reality has also been considered of great interest within user-centered design (UCD) which, for example, is leading towards the creation of virtual tours of university campuses for students (O’Brien, 2015).
Within the context of this study, a virtual reality promotional tool has been developed throughout a two-years collaboration with the Public Relations (PR) department of Aalborg University Esbjerg. Its intended use was assigned to promotional purposes, and prototype implementation has covered personas as main UCD methodology, dedicated to fulfill the expectations of various users. Their contribution to the application’s overall user experience and presence has been individually analysed. Results show that personas, as UCD methodology do not affect the level of presence but do affect the user experience within users’ interaction with the virtual reality application.