  Immersive stories for health are 360-degree videos that intend to alter
viewer perceptions about behaviors detrimental to health. They have potential
to inform public health at scale, however, immersive story design is still in
early stages and largely devoid of best practices. This paper presents a focus
group study with 147 viewers of an immersive story about binge drinking
experienced through VR headsets and mobile phones. The objective of the study
is to identify aspects of immersive story design that influence attitudes
towards the health issue exhibited, and to understand how health information is
consumed in immersive stories. Findings emphasize the need for an immersive
story to provide reasoning behind character engagement in the focal health
behavior, to show the main character clearly engaging in the behavior, and to
enable viewers to experience escalating symptoms of the behavior before the
penultimate health consequence. Findings also show how the design of supporting
characters can inadvertently distract viewers and lead them to justify the
detrimental behavior being exhibited. The paper concludes with design
considerations for enabling immersive stories to better inform public
perception of health issues.
