A Review of Virtual Prototyping Approaches for User Testing of Design Solutions

The paper reviews the latest research on virtual prototyping approaches for user testing designs. The different approaches are compared and their usefulness are evaluated. Virtual prototypes are modifiable, allow each sensory channel to be manipulated separately and allow reuse of prototyping elements. Essentially, virtual prototyping could mean faster decision-making in product development processes than traditional physical prototyping. Three categories of virtual prototyping approaches are established and their strengths and weaknesses are discussed and illustrated through cases from literature. The categorization suggested are Virtual Prototyping, Interactive Virtual Prototyping and Mixed prototyping. Several studies show that virtual prototyping approaches can be useful and effective. Still, some challenges remain to be solved. The fidelity provided by today’s haptic devices is not very high, and some studies received feedback from the users that the devices that needed to be worn was too intrusive. Current trends are combining both physical and virtual prototyping to meet the challenges of low haptic fidelity. Further, attempts at distributing virtual prototypes across networks to achieve more flexibility in the way designers interact with users show much potential.