What’s in a BIP? Exploring the Lived Experiences of Breaks In Presence

Why Read This from an HCI Perspective

This article is important because it shows that moments when users lose immersion in VR are not just errors, but experiences that can be felt and handled in real ways. In particular, it captures the ‘momentary experience’ that scores from questionnaires alone can’t reveal through interviews, and explains why interaction design matters. In systems where safety is critical, even small interruptions can change users’ judgments and actions; this study proposes ways to read such failures from the user’s perspective.

CIT's Commentary

What’s interesting is that the study frames BIP not as a ‘disappearing immersion,’ but as a ‘shift in experience’ in which users re-recognize reality and the medium. This applies not only to VR, but also to systems where users must intermittently intervene—such as AI agents or remote control. Even with strong performance, if the system’s state is opaque, users become anxious; conversely, if minor anomaly signals are explained appropriately, users can regain trust. However, in real-world deployment, hiding disruptive elements isn’t the only answer. It becomes more important to design when to prompt user intervention and when to let things transition naturally. The study is especially useful because it addresses moments of ‘cognitive insight’ that are easy to miss with existing measurement tools like questionnaires—opening room for future mixed-method research, such as qualitative analysis support using LLMs combined with interaction logs.

Questions to Consider While Reading

• Q.When BIP is defined as ‘awareness of reality,’ what signals in real products can be considered the start and end of a BIP?
• Q.When users lose immersion, which is more appropriate—design that hides the interruption, or design that reveals the system state?
• Q.When using questionnaires and interviews together, how far can LLMs assist, and from where onward is the researcher’s interpretation essential?