Colloquia

Summary

This master thesis explores extended reality (XR) technologies as a user validation tool for a product development firm. The digitalization of prototypes aims to reduce costs and streamline activities by replacing early prototypes with XR, without obstructing the current workflow.

Structured in three parts, the thesis begins with an analysis of the existing coffee machine’s user interaction (UI), followed by literature research into XR, and concluding with the case study. The case study brings the conclusions of the first two parts together through the creation of a new coffee machine, and the construction of an XR tool. This XR tool utilizes the coffee machine as a means to validate XR as a form of UI testing.

The UI analysis concludes with an ideal use flow, the steps a user takes to brew a coffee, which is validated in the XR tool. The literature research defines the extended reality spectrum, an umbrella term for virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). This leads to the selection of Desktop VR and the HoloLens 2 (AR headset) as the two forms of XR to develop and explore in the case study.

The case study establishes the new coffee machine UI alongside the XR tool in Unreal Engine. The XR tool is built to make both Desktop VR and AR validation possible, based on the same foundation. The XR tool, developed to make the coffee machine interactive, tests the possibilities of using XR as a form of user validation.

The thesis concludes with a final advice to the client company to utilize the XR tool as a form of user validation in terms of in-house testing, early in the product development process.