Studying interaction density in co-design sessions involving spatial augmented reality

The participation of end-users in co-design sessions has always been challenging. Despite a long history of trials and research, finding the best way to go about this form of collaboration in early innovation phases is still an open question for many companies. At the cutting edge of innovation, design agencies are becoming increasingly involved in co-design today. Direct face-to-face collaboration with end-users is a key factor for the success of co-design, and ICT solutions must therefore allow active involvement of all participants and their direct interaction. This paper reports an original evaluation of a Spatial Augmented Reality (SAR) environment dedicated to supporting co-design sessions. It investigates collaborative interactions and explores the role of design artefacts in the collaborative process. Observations of a conventional co-design situation are compared with those of sessions assisted by SAR technology. These two contrasting environments reveal both similarities and differences. The results show that within the SAR-supported environment there is an increase in end-users' interaction density within the design activities. We observed that providing tangible artefacts augmented by digital content increased the density of interactions and encouraged greater sharing in co-design meetings.