A Holistic Approach to Design and Evaluation of Mixed Reality Systems

Abstract

This chapter addresses issues related to usability and user experience of mixed reality (MR) systems based on a naturalistic iterative design approach to the development of MR applications. Design and evaluation of MR applications are still mostly based on methods used for development of more traditional desktop graphical user interfaces. MR systems are in many aspects very different from desktop computer applications, so these traditional methods are not sufficient for MR applications. There is a need for new approaches to user-centred design and development of MR systems. One such approach is based on the concepts of cognitive systems engineering (CSE). In this chapter we show how this approach can be applied to the development of MR systems. Two case studies are described, where a holistic CSE approach to design, implementation and evaluation has been used. The results show that allowing real end users (field/domain experts) to interact in a close to naturalistic setting provides insights on how to design MR applications that are difficult to attain otherwise. We also show the importance of iterative design, again involving real end users.