IEDS in practice: A comparative study of an intelli-embodied design space combining AR and GAI for conceptual design

Conceptual design is an important stage in product development. In conceptual design, the design space that designers face and the design materials they utilize affect their perception and creation. The development of human-computer interaction (HCI) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies expands the boundaries of design space and materials. On one hand, augmented reality (AR) technologies are being utilized to create a design space that merges physical and virtual representations, facilitating intuitive interaction and embodied cognition. On the other hand, generative artificial intelligence (GAI) is employed as a novel design material to enhance creativity and boost design productivity. Against this background, this study explored an Intelli-Embodied Design Space (IEDS) combining designers, AR, and GAI to support conceptual design, aiming to enhance designers’ thinking by superposing embodied interaction and generative variability. In IEDS, designers can interact with physical prototypes intuitively, while GAI can refine them into virtual forms that can be embedded in the physical world through AR technology. In this paper, we developed three potential IEDS systems and conducted a comparative user study with 27 designers to evaluate it from a practical perspective. According to the qualitative and quantitative experimental results, we clarified the interactive guidelines and best practices of IEDS. We also critically discussed IEDS’s influence on conceptual design and released its future vision to the HCI community.