Use of Interactive Virtual Prototypes to define product design specifications: a pilot study on consumer products

Virtual Prototyping (VP) aims at substituting physical prototypes currently used in the industrial design practice with their virtual replica. The ultimate goal of VP is reducing the cost and time necessary to implement and test different design solutions. The paper describes a pilot study that aims at understanding how interactive Virtual Prototypes (iVPs) of consumer products (where interaction is based on the combination of haptic, sound and 3D visualization technologies) would allow us to design the interaction parameters that concur in creating the first impression of the products that customers have when interacting with them. We have selected two commercially available products and, once created the corresponding virtual replica, we have first checked the fidelity of the iVPs by comparing them with the corresponding real products, when used to perform the same activities. Then, differently from the traditional use of Virtual Prototypes for product design evaluation, we have used them for haptic interaction design, i.e. as a means to define some design variables used for the specification of new products: variations are applied to iVP haptic parameters so as to test with final users their preferences concerning the haptic interaction with a simulated product. The iVP configuration that users liked most has then been used for the definition of the specifications for the design of the new product.