![]() ![]() Traffic in the northernmost shipping routes is expected to continue increasing as glacial ice melts, opening new routes that were previously not accessible. Maritime operations in Arctic regions further exacerbate these conditions and introduce unique safety challenges for ships’ navigation teams including a lack of accurate navigational information, extreme weather conditions, inherent technology limitations, heavy reliance on Arctic-specific knowledge, and longer waiting times for rescue services. This includes long hours, isolated work, inconsistent connectivity to land-based resources and high-stress tasks. Working at sea is a challenging occupation with notoriously unpredictable working conditions. In conclusion, we argue that operational scenarios, rendered in immersive media such as VR, may be an important and reusable asset when supporting maritime design processes and in maritime training and education. Qualitative data were captured throughout the design process and user-testing, resulting in a thematic analysis that identified common themes reflecting the experiences gained throughout this process. Three operational scenarios were developed, implemented in a full mission bridge simulator, recreated in virtual reality (VR), and finally tested on navigators (end-users). This paper explores how virtual reality-reconstructed operational scenarios can be used as a tool both for concept development and user testing. To meet this challenge, this paper reports on the process of developing virtual reality-reconstructed operational scenarios to connect stakeholders, end-users, designers, and human factors specialists in a joint process. There is a lack of research supporting the user-centered design of workplaces for hazardous Arctic operations. Operations in Arctic waters where crews are faced with extreme environmental conditions, technology limitations and a lack of accurate navigational information further increase this challenge. Maritime user interfaces for ships’ bridges are highly dependent on the context in which they are used, and rich maritime context is difficult to recreate in the early stages of user-centered design processes. ![]()
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