Advancing STEM Education for Sustainability: The Impact of Graphical Knowledge Visualization and User Experience on Continuance Intention in Mixed-Reality Environments

Knowledge visualization has gained significant research attention for its potential to facilitate knowledge construction through interactive graphics while minimizing cognitive load during information processing. However, limited research has examined the integration of knowledge visualization within highly interactive mixed-reality environments and its effects on user experiences and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) sustainability. Drawing on the cognitive-affective model of immersive learning, this study investigates how learners’ user experiences, elicited by mixed-reality features and usability, influence their sustainable engagement with STEM learning through knowledge-visualization tools framed within the stimulus–organism–response model. A novel mixed-reality learning system was developed, with the user interface designed using concept maps to graphically visualize concept nodes and their interconnected relationships. A total of 136 learners from two high schools in China participated in an experiment on frictional physics using this novel system. Using structural equation modeling, the collected data were analyzed with partial least squares. The findings demonstrate that mixed-reality features of knowledge visualization (featured by 3D graphics, interface design, and operational functions), as well as usability (featured by the perceived usefulness of the concept map, perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness of the system), have positive significant impacts on user experience (represented by satisfaction, perceived enjoyment, and attitude). Subsequently, positive user experiences have positive significant impacts on learners’ sustained intention to engage with STEM education. Further mediating analysis provides empirical evidence that positive user experiences, acting as a psychological enabler, mediate the relationship between system design and behavioral intention. The research model explains 65.2% of the variance for system usability, 53.4% for satisfaction, 51.5% for perceived enjoyment, 54.9% for attitude, and 63.2% for continuance intention. By fostering positive user experiences in STEM learning, this study offers valuable insights for educators and practitioners seeking to implement effective interactive knowledge visualizations to support sustainable STEM education and immersive learning.