  The combination of Visual Guidance and Extended Reality (XR) technology holds
the potential to greatly improve the performance of human workforces in
numerous areas, particularly industrial environments. Focusing on virtual
assembly tasks and making use of different forms of supportive visualisations,
this study investigates the potential of XR Visual Guidance. Set in a web-based
immersive environment, our results draw from a heterogeneous pool of 199
participants. This research is designed to significantly differ from previous
exploratory studies, which yielded conflicting results on user performance and
associated human factors. Our results clearly show the advantages of XR Visual
Guidance based on an over 50\% reduction in task completion times and mistakes
made; this may further be enhanced and refined using specific frameworks and
other forms of visualisations/Visual Guidance. Discussing the role of other
factors, such as cognitive load, motivation, and usability, this paper also
seeks to provide concrete avenues for future research and practical takeaways
for practitioners.
