Methodological Reflections on Early-Stage Requirement Gathering and Prioritization For Immersive Extended Reality Applications

The development of immersive media applications depends on structured processes early on to gather and prioritise user requirements. The processes for complex research projects with multiple partners often take place through internal co-creation sessions with consortium members rather than direct contact with end users. The effectiveness of these initial processes remains crucial as they drive the refinement of the application that will later be tested by end-users, developers and professional stakeholders. This paper examines the methodological challenges that arose during the collection of qualitative requirements and quantitative prioritisation within the PRESENCE project, a European project focusing on developing extended reality (XR) technologies to improve immersive communication. Combining action research with reflective analysis, this paper reveals several key challenges, including (1) difficulties in designing realistic yet visionary personas and aligning stakeholder interpretations, (2) translation issues from open-ended feedback to concrete and actionable requirements, and (3) cognitive overload and reduced engagement during the quantitative prioritisation of a large set of requirements. The research findings fit into general evaluation approaches for immersive media projects and provide recommendations to improve early-stage processes, which will benefit future interaction and storytelling design.