Personalizing spatial configuration and user responses in virtual reality workspaces

The virtual reality workspace (VRWS) extends knowledge work beyond two-dimensional screens, positioning spatial design as an active environmental condition rather than a passive backdrop. Although often highlighted as a key advantage of VRWSs, design personalization has primarily been examined as presence or absence, or through isolated spatial attributes, limiting its application as a scalable strategy. This study investigates how the scope of user-driven personalization of architectural and environmental conditions influences spatial satisfaction and work productivity, and how these variables are structurally related. Seventy-three participants performed two text-based cognitive tasks under three levels of personalization scope in a repeated-measures design. Broader scope did not consistently improve measured work productivity but was associated with higher perceived work productivity through increased spatial satisfaction. By operationalizing personalization scope as a graded rather than binary variable and separating measured from perceived work productivity, this study identifies spatial satisfaction as the experiential pathway through which design personalization shapes the work experience.