Mixed Reality Prototypes to Support Early Creative Design

Many complex IT projects are still primarily focusing on today's technological challenges. The adaptation of the core technologies to potential applications often occurs in a second stage where the end-users are involved. We describe a different approach, involving the users at the very beginning of the development. The domain we address is the creative design, mainly architecture. Rooted in a multidisciplinary approach as well as a deep understanding of architecture and design, our method aims at proposing adapted mixed reality solution to support two crucial activities : sketch-based preliminary design and distant synchronous collaboration in design. This chapter provides a summary of our work on a mixed-reality device based on a drawing table (the Virtual Desktop) designed specifically to address real-life/trade-focused issues. We explain our methodology, describe the two supported activities and the related users’s needs, we detail the technological solution we have developed and we present the main results of the multiple evaluation sessions. We then conclude on the usefulness of the profession-centered methodology and on the pertinence of the mixed reality to support creative design activities.