MacroScope: First-Person Perspective in Physical Scale Models
Traditionally, architects and designers have used scale models to explore, communicate, and evaluate concepts and ideas in large-scale, spatial projects. These scale models offer the user a bird’s eye perspective and often tangible ways of interacting with the model. Nevertheless, they lack a realistic, first-person view on the effects that the design solutions have in the space. In this paper, we explore MacroScope, a tool that aims to support collaborative spatial design by providing a real time, 360o first-person perspective in a physical scale model, by means of a virtual reality head-mounted display. We reflect on the usage potentials in collaborative creative processes, before describing next steps for the development of MacroScope.
Dorothé Smit, Thomas Grah, Martin Murer, Vincent van Rheden, and Manfred Tscheligi. 2018. MacroScope: First-Person Perspective in Physical Scale Models. In Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI ’18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 253-259. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3173225.3173276
The Evolution of a Scale Model as an Impromptu Design Tool
The use of generative design tools for collaborative design tasks has been common practice in the fields of HCI and Design. In this pictorial, we present the evolution of an open-ended design tool: a scale model of a car showroom, used to investigate collaborative interactions in spatial environments. The features of the scale model evolved through several impromptu usage scenarios. With this contribution, we share our observations about the use of the prototype as a means of communication, as well as a means of inspiration, and argue for the use of non-prescriptive design tools in collaborative design projects.
Dorothé Smit, Martin Murer, Vincent van Rheden, Thomas Grah, and Manfred Tscheligi. 2017. The Evolution of a Scale Model as an Impromptu Design Tool. In Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS ’17). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 233-245. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3064663.3064797