Using Social VR System in Multidisciplinary Codesign

Social VR (SVR) systems are potentially adequate to support remote collaboration by allowing multidisciplinary students to codesign through an immersive shared display and 3D sketching. These characteristics become substantial for Multidisciplinary Codesign (MC) courses with the appreciation of the skills gained as knowledge is co-constructed. In codesign, participants ideate and develop together a design solution through verbal exchanges and design representations, relying on each participant’s expertise. Considering that non-design students lack design skills, design progress becomes highly challenging. Research focusing on how SVRs support MC is limited, what hinders integrating SVRs in these courses. Aiming to demonstrate how SVRs are used in MC courses, we monitored MC sessions involving three universities, from Industrial design, Ergonomics and Engineering. Data include three sessions of three remote multidisciplinary teams using three interconnected SVRs and three sessions involving collocated Industrial design students using a single SVR. The verbal and representational activities generated during the sessions were analysed, accounting for elements of collaborative ideation. Results showed a dominance of Industrial design students in generating representations and collaborative ideation. A rise in 3D representations in advanced MC sessions indicates the SVRs’ role in the process, understandings that enable the integration of SVRs in inter-university collaborations.