Co-designing augmented reality: exploring the role of boundary negotiating artifacts

Abstract

ABSTRACT There is a consensus in the literature that interdisciplinarity fosters greater innovation within co-design teams, however, systematic approaches for how experiential knowledge is shared between team members remains underexplored. This study examines the role of artifacts created by a team of interdisciplinary students during the process of co-designing augmented reality (AR) technology for a hybrid interior environment in an academic incubator building. The project emphasises the role of end-users as co-creators across phases of the design process, with collaborative work unexpectedly shifting from in-person to virtual practices due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Artifacts created by team members and in-depth interviews are analysed to examine how experiential knowledge was developed and shared between students from different majors. In addition to the development team data, this study draws on concurrent think-aloud data from other end-users about the AR-application prototype. The findings indicate the role of sharing scene demos, storyboards, and mock-ups as ‘boundary-negotiating artifacts’ which helped team members develop a common language for sharing key aspects of the AR development process. This study suggests a framework for intentional development of boundary-negotiating artifacts based on phases of the co-design process for further technology-based collaboration on interdisciplinary teams.