Master’s Thesis Defense

School of Industrial Design 

MID Candidate: Xiaotian Zhang

Date: January 11, 2016

Time: 5:00pm-7:00pm

Location: West Architecture, Room 250

Committee Members:

Dr. Young Mi Choi, Assistant Professor, School of Industrial Design, Advisor

Reading Committee:

Prof. Tim Purdy, School of Industrial Design

Prof. Wendell Wilson, School of Industrial Design

Title: Applying Tangible Augmented Reality in Usability Evaluation

Abstract:

Feedback from users is an invaluable part of the product design process. Prototypes of varying levels of detail are frequently used to solicit this feedback for attributes related to the physical and user experience aspects of a product. Accurate feedback is most useful in the early steps of design process where changes are easier to make. At the same time, highly detailed prototypes which allow accurate feedback are generally not available until much later in the process and are expensive and time consuming to produce. This goal of this study will be to investigate the use of Tangible Augmented Reality for performing usability testing of products that utilize physical interface elements. Usability tests were performed with three representations of an existing product: augmented reality (AR), augmented foam (AF) and tangible augmented reality (TAR).  Each representation allowed different ways of interacting with the product.  These were compared with usability tests performed on the actual product.  The results showed significant differences between the AR and AF groups.  No significant difference with the TAR group was found indicating that tangible augmented reality may be a useful tool for earlier and more cost effective evaluation of product interfaces.