Within INEDIT, we have anticipated that those technologies and the DIT process itself would need a deep understanding of the acceptance and adoption from potential users.

From the very beginning of the projects, we have interviewed potential consumers, designers, producers, makers who could have a specific interest using such a process and platform. We have identified the key difficulties they meet, that are not solved 2 years later. This means we still have a role to play by the way in changing mindsets of creators and consumers.

We have then started developing the theoretical process and proofs of concepts or software to illustrate it. This process has been presented and debated with the pilot testers. In total we have performed 6 events for a total of 120 students in 3 different countries, who even tested the co-creation tools we developed.

The events were always more or less with the same format, from the description of our ideas and process, to the tests of the tools on concrete use cases. Then depending on the partner organizing the event some specific topics were debated.

We have observed the acceptability and acceptation indicators for 2 years, showing them the progress of the tools. The latest event took place in Laval, France, where 20 students came from the Ecole Supérieure du Bois, in which they learn everything to become wood working expert engineers. They have been able to scan a space, sketch and imagine the furniture together, and then design with our prototype of Immersive Design Tool. The results are astonishing as you can see on the pictures below.

So, what are our findings?

In terms of results, we have discovered that the acceptability is always very high, and unfortunately the acceptance has often lower scores. Moreover, some have a really good experience using VR tools, while some are just rejecting the technology and don’t like the experience at all.

Two papers have been published describing the innovative process of furniture design based on 3D scan and virtual reality, and providing guidelines to the development of immersive co-creation tools.

Two main axes can be explored in future research. The first one would be to improve the immersive design tool to make it more usable and to create the digital continuity between it and wood machines. The second axis will be to conduct an acceptability and acceptance survey about the DIT process using structural equation modeling to better identify the main barriers to use and to identify how to engage people in this type of process.

REFERENCES

Fleury, S., Poussard, B., Blanchard, P., Dupont, L., Meister Broekema, P., & Richir, S. (2022). Innovative process for furniture design: contribution of 3D scan and virtual reality. Computer-Aided Design and Applications, 868-878,  doi: 10.14733/cadaps.2022.868-878

Fleury, S., Blanchard, P., & Richir, S. (2021). A study of the effects of a natural virtual environment on creativity during a product design activity. Thinking Skill and Creativity.