Procedural Framework for VR User Onboarding, Use, and Offboarding

Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) experiences involve embodied, multisensory interaction that can introduce physical, cognitive, and emotional risks for participants, particularly in research and educational contexts. These risks include, but are not limited to, motion sickness, disorientation, eye strain, and anxiety, as well as challenges related to hygiene, spatial awareness, and prolonged immersion. Consequently, VR-based research requires carefully designed procedures that prioritise participant well-being alongside research objectives. The following onboarding, use, and offboarding procedure was developed to ensure the safe, ethical, and consistent deployment of VR experiences across study sessions. It adopts a care-centred and ethics-by-design approach, emphasising informed consent, gradual exposure, active monitoring, shared responsibility for hygiene, and participant agency throughout the VR lifecycle. By explicitly structuring how participants are introduced to, supported during, and guided out of immersive environments, this procedure mitigates foreseeable risks while enhancing trust, comfort, and methodological rigor. The procedure was applied consistently across the studies reported in this paper and is supported by an accompanying checklist appendix to ensure transparency and accountability.