Enhancing augmented reality for use in product design

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. There are limitations to current approaches. Accurate feedback is most useful early in the design process where changes to a product are easier to make. At the same time highly detailed prototypes which allow accurate feedback are generally not available until later in the design process after major design decisions have already been made. This paper will discuss Augmented Reality as a potential solution to this problem by combining physical attributes with easily changeable virtual aspects.