While Immersive Reality (XR) design tools continue to emerge, the industry perspective on their value is unclear. This paper presents outputs of a workshop with 16 design experts testing a wide range of XR design tools. Value exceeding that of traditional tools was reported, driven by human-centric affordances like flexibility, interactivity, and response rate. Perceived detriments were linked to implementation challenges, such as fidelity and skill. Findings validate XR’s potential in design and direct future work towards overcoming key technical hurdles to unlock its value.

The search for effective strategies to support mental well-being has become increasingly pressing in contemporary societies, where stress, anxiety, and cognitive overload are widespread. In this paper, we present a wearable-supported VR system designed to enhance mindfulness through the integration of visual, auditory, and respiratory cues. Drawing on evidence from color therapy, binaural beats, and biofeedback, the system delivers a multisensory environment that supports emotional regulation. We describe the system’s design and discuss its potential to improve technology-mediated well-being.

Gaps in lived experience hinder designers from understanding users. Virtual Reality (VR) may bridge this gap with immersive simulations, but its validity lacks comprehensive examination. This study addresses that gap via a VR scenario simulating the challenges of essential tremor (involuntary hand movements). Following the experience, designers demonstrated significantly enhanced empathy and a deeper user understanding. This translated into more accurate and contextually grounded problem framing. Designers’ rationales also suggest they intuitively internalized core design thinking principles.

Mixed Reality (MR) prototyping offers significant design opportunities but introduces complexity in prototype specification. This paper presents a card-based design tool to support designers in this specification process. The tool is based on a comprehensive taxonomy of MR prototype fidelity and foundational research into the interplay between, and value of, different physical and virtual characteristics. A validation study demonstrates that the developed tool supports and guides designer reasoning, resulting in higher quality MR prototypes with stronger rationale for their implementation.

Myopia remains a major barrier to immersive VR use, causing blur and discomfort. This review compares software, hardware, and hybrid compensation approaches. Software methods offer flexible, low-cost enhancement but limited optical correction. Hardware solutions provide accurate adjustment at ergonomic cost. Hybrid systems combine adaptive optics and real-time rendering, showing promise for personalized correction. Key trade-offs and future design directions are outlined.

Barriers limit laboratory participation for students with study-impairing conditions. A mixed-methods study via survey (n=43) and interviews (n=9) identified two student clusters with distinct accessibility needs: Cluster 1 requiring flexible scheduling and modular structure for chronic illness and caregiving; Cluster 2 requiring explicit guidance and multi-modal content for visual impairment and neurodivergence. Both required institutional support infrastructure. Results establish evidence-based requirements for inclusive remote laboratory development applicable beyond target populations.

This paper explores the adaptation needs of employees in the context of implementing virtual reality (VR) in product development. Rather than analysing the overall process, the study focuses specifically on the employee aspects, including their roles, tasks, and challenges within the workflow. Existing work-related activities were analysed and visualized to identify inefficiencies. A set of tailored assessment criteria was created to systematically evaluate various sources of waste and process-related challenges.

This study aims to examine the effects of luminance contrast on cognitive experience. An experiment was conducted under controlled conditions with high/low luminance contrast settings. Perceived time was measured by tapping rate, while subjective ratings of astonishment, concentration, comfort, and a semi-structured interview were collected. The results showed that higher luminance contrast elicited greater astonishment, and perceived time was associated with concentration and comfort but limited with astonishment, suggesting that astonishment may involve higher-order cognitive reappraisal.

The ideating phase of product design is critical, as decisions made here influence the rest of the product’s lifecycle. Usually, early preliminary designs in engineering are created with pen and paper, which are incompatible with the subsequent digital design process. In an effort to find a modeling tool for early designs that provides the creative flexibility of freehand sketching but also the further processability of digital models, this research investigates natural modeling in virtual reality (VR). To do so, a VR modeling method allowing the intuitive creation of preliminary designs as simplified computer-aided design (CAD) models is presented. The main contribution is the evaluation of this natural VR modeling method against freehand sketching in an extensive user study.

Hands are the sensors and actuators for many design tasks. While several tools exist to capture human interaction and pose, many are expensive and require intrusive measurement devices to be placed on participants and often takes them out of the natural working environment. This paper reports a novel workflow that combines computer vision, several Machine Learning algorithms, and geometric transformations to provide a low-cost non-intrusive means of spatially tracking hands. A ±3mm position accuracy was attained across a series of 3-dimensional follow the path studies.

Nowadays, there is a pressing need to incorporate sustainable practices and promote environmental awareness. The fashion industry, characterized by resource-intensive consumption, significantly contributes to global sustainability threats. The authors proposed the adoption of Virtual Reality (VR) to design and develop the Fashion Footprint application, an experience aimed at enhancing sustainability awareness and fostering behavioral change. The findings suggest that VR technology is valuable in promoting sustainability awareness and driving positive behavioral shifts in the fashion industry.

Virtual reality plays an increasingly important role in design education. However, a holistic view, starting with the didactic concept, the selection of a VR tool suitable for the learning task and a final reflective evaluation of the learning experience, rarely takes place. In this paper, the authors present an approach for a VR didactics toolkit that covers and takes into account all three points as a whole. The application and research environment here was the bachelor's degree module Ergonomics and Industrial Design at the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences.

In design education, integrating digital tools has revolutionized pedagogical approaches. This study examines the impact of VR HMDs and PC screens on learning ancient Chinese architecture using a virtual tour. Involving 22 students, it assessed simulator sickness, user experience, and spatial awareness. Results show VR had a more positive spatial learning experience but the same learning outcomes. VR enhances presence but increases simulator sickness. The study underscores VR's potential and limitations in ancient Chinese architectural education, suggesting future research directions.

Various industries use computer simulation for verifying product properties in early phases of development. Traditionally, such properties include the stability of mechanical structures or the efficiency of aircraft turbines. More recently, research also focuses on the mountability of industrial products using virtual assembly. While research on virtual assembly already started in the mid-1990s, the applicability in different industries remains largely unclear today. To advance the state-of-the-art, in this paper we present learnings from developing a virtual assembly environment for cooling cabinets.

Underpinning much work on the use of Virtual Reality technologies in design prototyping, is the need to reliably track the 3D position of a physical object in real space, then allowing synchronisation with a digital counterpart. With many tracking methods requiring changes to object geometry, this work develops and benchmarks four minimally invasiveness 6 DoF tracking approaches, before discussing their use in a prototyping context. Results show that using AI and point cloud methods, accuracies of 20mm at 20Hz are achievable on low-end hardware with no alterations to the prototype needed.

With recent advancements in Virtual reality (VR), 3D design in VR has gained significant interest from both academia and industries. However, the development of these VR CAD tools is either skewed towards the creative industry or simply mimicking conventional CAD. This paper presents three different tools, analyzes them, and compares their capabilities over various performance parameters. The paper finally suggests where these tools can be used in the design process and some critical pathways for developing VR-based CAD modeling software for practical use in the engineering design industry.

Immersive reality (XR) technologies, particularly Mixed Reality (MR), offer promising opportunities for enhancing design prototyping. While recent studies often focus on Virtual Reality this work explores the application of MR, where focus lies on interlinking both the physical and digital to maximise benefit. Following a review of XR in design, a descriptive framework is presented to characterise MR prototyping. Two case studies are then presented to highlight the value of bridging the physical and digitalf worlds, before directions for further research in MR-based prototyping are outlined.