The development and, perhaps more importantly, the price-point accessibility of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) will now allow an increasing number of organisations to invest in implementations of both technologies.
In the industrial commercial space outside of its penetration is gaming and ‘leisure’, the impact of VR and AR will be felt more clearly than in the design industry, with its emphasis and particular proclivity for all things visual. Design methodologies and the design visualisation process are about to be changed forever.
Here we present five important ways design is about to change.
Factor #1: Visualisation goes beyond conceptualisation
VR’s aim, in the professional context, is to provide a 100% virtual world in which to design, evaluate and test a product. What this means for product (and to some extent service) development is that we are able to attain a new tangibility factor that goes way beyond the core stages of design conceptualisation. This testing stage can then virtuously tumble forward into user acceptance testing, product refinement and subsequent streams of product hardening and augmentation.
As a prime example, according to the Architectural Review’s latest survey… almost 20% of architects are now using VR. One of the primary advantages workflow/operational these professionals are gaining is the ability to get early customer buy-in to designs and ensure any requirement changes are made early to prevent costly rework later.
Factor #2: Creating virtual teams
In its wider implementation, VR and AR will enable us to create virtualised teams of designers (and product specialists, software engineers and management etc.) who will be able to work on full 3D product models without necessarily being in the same physical location. Team members can use VR not only to explore their way around a product, they can also use VR combined with AR to walk their way around a shop or factory floor, as they finesse a product for real world implementation. But the key point here is that we as humans are native 3D creatures, so our ability to engage, feedback and collaborate will always be far higher when we’re working in our native 3D environment.
Factor #3: The digital showroom
VR has the potential to change how customers engage with the products they’re looking to purchase. As the technology itself becomes more mainstream and affordable, designers will be able to dovetail their creative process with implementations of VR and AR in virtual and/or augmented showrooms. As consumers and business users of products start to be able to react to prototype designs in environments where feedback can be captured and digitally structured, the entire design lifecycle becomes more connected, more personal and altogether more dynamic. As a perfect example here, car manufacturers are now beginning to allow customers to ‘drive’ their new cars virtually, long before the physical production models have even left the factory.
Factor #4: The human X-factor
Perhaps one of the most central reasons that VR and AR are about to change design so dramatically comes down to the individual readiness of the users themselves – and thus their readiness for the products that design will ultimately produce. The prevalence of high-powered smartphones equipped with GPS, motion sensors and cameras has meant that consumers are now used to the idea that information (in whatever form) can be overlaid on a view of the real world through their device’s camera.
Some vendors are already experimenting with augmented displays and combining them with manual interaction to create a new method of human-machine interfacing and input.
Factor #5: High-impact industrial product innovation
As we stand in 2016, both VR and AR are at a strategic inflexion point of development where implementation of both design principals are already extending outside consumer and commercial enterprise spheres into ‘high-impact’ areas such as military and medical training; specifically in regard to photorealistic visualisation tools that impact product development and production on an industrial scale. Further down the road we will see designers re-apply industrial product innovations back towards consumer products as well, as a kind of virtuous circle further develops.
The future for Virtual Reality centric design is ready to see, touch and feel. As major platform-level changes in information technology typically come about in roughly five- to ten-year cycles, our existing VR and AR capabilities are now moving towards more mainstream levels of adoption and refinement thus representing a platform progression in and of itself. Where we apply VR and AR design in another decade from now with enhanced machine learning ‘neural’ networks and quantum computing power is yet to be determined. But yes, it is the story we will be telling next.
To learn more about the latest developments in visualization and benefits to business, click here.
Adrian Bridgwater
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Tags: CAD, graphics & design, Technology