Högskolan i Skövde

Design reviews are central activities in product development, bringing together cross-functional teams to evaluate design proposals, identify issues, and decide on the progression of work. As product development becomes increasingly digital and distributed, these reviews are mediated by tools such as CAD software, videoconferencing platforms, and, more recently, extended reality (XR) systems. These technologies fundamentally shape how reviewers access shared product models, coordinate attention, and form a shared understanding. However, current industrial practice relies heavily on one person’s screen sharing with the rest of the group, which limits direct interaction with product design representations and creates friction in communication and coordination.

This thesis examines how collaborative technologies can better support interaction and coordination in design reviews and develops practical guidance for their deployment in industrial settings. The research adopts a design-oriented mixed-method approach, combining field studies, experiments, and participatory workshops. Field observations of distributed design reviews identified four recurring friction situations: requesting specific viewpoints, indicating specific elements, expressing design change ideas, and evaluating ergonomics. Subsequent laboratory experiments and qualitative observations in shared 3D environments isolated how specific technological configurations, such as independent navigation and shared spatial scenes, influence how teams distribute attention and maintain common ground.

Synthesizing the results, the thesis identifies a set of core affordances that collaboration systems for design reviews need to support: shared spatial presence around the product model, in-scene deictic indication (pointing), and independent navigation with mechanisms for following a presenter. These affordances are translated into a framework and a set of practical guidelines that connect interaction capabilities with the preparation, conduct, and documentation of design reviews. These guidelines were developed and validated through workshops with two automotive companies, confirming the guidelines’ clarity and applicability in real-world practice. Collectively, the thesis contributes to a deeper understanding of technology-mediated collaboration and provides actionable methods for integrating advanced digital tools into engineering workflows.

Konstruktionsgenomgångar (design reviews) är centrala aktiviteter inom produktutveckling, där tvärfunktionella team samlas för att utvärdera konstruktionsförslag, identifiera problem och besluta om hur arbetet ska fortskrida. I takt med att produktutvecklingen blir alltmer digital och distribuerad medieras konstruktionsgenomgångar via verktyg såsom CAD-programvara, videokonferensplattformar och, på senare tid, XR-system (extended reality). Dessa tekniker påverkar i grunden deltagarnas tillgång till produktmodellerna, hur uppmärksamhet samordnas och hur deltagarna bildar en gemensam förståelse. Nuvarande industriell praxis är dock starkt beroende av presentatörscentrerad skärmdelning vilket begränsar deltagarnas interaktion med konstruktionsförslag och skapar friktion i kommunikation och samordning.

Denna avhandling undersöker hur samarbetsteknologier bättre kan stödja interaktion och samordning vid konstruktionsgenomgångar och utvecklar praktiska riktlinjer för deras användning i industriella sammanhang. Forskningen använder en designorienterad mixed-method-ansats, som kombinerar fältstudier, experiment och deltagande workshops. Fältobservationer av distribuerade konstruktionsgenomgångar identifierade fyra återkommande friktionssituationer: begäran om specifika betraktningspunkter, indikering av specifika produktdetaljer, uttryckande av idéer om designförändringar, och utvärdering av ergonomi. Efterföljande laboratorieexperiment och kvalitativa observationer i delade 3D-miljöer isolerade hur specifika tekniska konfigurationer, såsom oberoende navigering och delade rumsliga scener, påverkar hur team fördelar sin uppmärksamhet och upprätthåller gemensam grund.

Resultaten sammanfattas i en uppsättning centrala funktioner som samarbetssystem för konstruktionsgenomgångar behöver stödja: delad rumslig närvaro kring produktmodellen, deiktisk indikation (pekning) i scenen, och oberoende navigering med mekanismer för att följa en presentatör. Dessa funktioner översätts till ett ramverk och en uppsättning praktiska riktlinjer som kopplar samman interaktionsmöjligheter med förberedelse, genomförande och dokumentation av konstruktionsgenomgångar. Dessa riktlinjer har utvecklats och validerats genom workshops med två fordonsföretag, vilket bekräftar riktlinjernas tydlighet och användbarhet i industriell verksamhet. Sammantaget bidrar avhandlingen till en djupare förståelse av teknikmedierad samverkan och ger praktiska metoder för att integrera avancerade digitala verktyg i ingenjörsmässiga arbetsflöden.

Design reviews are essential checkpoints in product and production development, yet their current implementation often leads to coordination difficulties and weak traceability. This paper defines what qualifies as an advanced collaboration tool for design reviews and identifies the core capabilities that distinguish such systems from conventional setups. The study builds on workshops with two industrial partners in the automotive sector, where participants reflected on the capabilities needed for more effective collaboration. Transcribed discussions were coded into capability clusters and grouped into three categories: interaction-related, process management-related, and domainspecific. The analysis identifies three core affordances that enable more effective design reviews: shared spatial presence, in-scene deictic indication, and independent navigation with presenter follow. Supportive capabilities such as anchored documentation, lightweight roles, and integration with managed records further improve participation and traceability. The proposed definition shifts attention from specific technologies to observable affordances that enable teams to jointly reason about complex geometry. It provides a practical foundation for evaluating and implementing collaboration systems that make design reviews more participatory, accountable, and efficient.

This study examines how specific collaborative features for independent viewpoint control, collaborative pointing, sketching, and manikin representations support design reviews in a virtual environment. Participants conducted design reviews using the collaborative design tool Gravity Sketch while engaging with these features. Results show that friction situations were minimal, with viewpoint control eliminating the need for perspective adjustments. Collaborative pointing and sketching effectively clarified design modifications, while manikin representations aided discussions on ergonomics. The findings highlight how the evaluated features facilitate communication in remote design reviews.

Aims: Recent world events have resulted in companies using remote meeting tools more often in design processes. The shift to remote meeting tools has had a notable impact on collaborative design activities, such as design reviews (DRs). When DRs depend on computer-aided design (CAD) software, the lack of direct support for CAD functionalities in videoconferencing applications introduces novel communication challenges, i.e. friction. This study investigates friction encountered in real world remote DRs when using a combination of standard CAD and videoconferencing applications. The objective was to understand the main sources of friction when carrying out DRs using a combination of CAD and videoconferencing applications.

Methods: At a single Swedish automobile manufacturer, 15 DRs of a fixture component were passively observed. These observations were subjected to a qualitative thematic analysis to identify categories and sources of friction during these DRs. The DRs were carried out using a combination of CATIA CAD software and Microsoft Teams for videoconferencing.

Results: The analysis of the 15 remote DRs identified four recurring friction categories: requesting specific viewpoints, indicating specific elements, expressing design change ideas, and evaluating ergonomics. Each category highlights specific challenges that were observed during the DRs and emerged due to constraints imposed by existing methods and technologies for remote meetings.

Conclusion: This study provides a framework for understanding the current sources of friction in remote DRs using videoconferencing tools. These insights can support the future development of DR software tools, guiding the integration of features that address these friction points. Additionally, the results serve as a guideline for organizations to implement methods that reduce friction in remote DRs and improve DR quality and efficacy.

Industry 5.0 revolution is prioritizing human-centricity and adapting technologies to augment shopfloor workers’ cognitive ergonomics. To provide a user-friendly, efficient virtual planning tool, virtual reality (VR) is adopted by the industry to provide a virtual work environment for layout planning, design reviews, and training use cases. However, the user interface (UI) of VR programs is not yet standardized for universal design, and thus causes issues such as difficult scalable technology adoption due to high mental workload. Creating intuitive and accessible interfaces is a key challenge in VR. As the complexity of VR platforms grows, it is vital that users can effectively explore and engage with them. Improved UI design may improve the whole user experience, making VR more accessible, scalable, and attractive to a larger audience. Navigation in a VR environment can impose a significant mental workload on users, affecting their cognitive capacities, including layout perception, navigation, attention for collaboration, and response/completion time. This study aims to identify and assess the UI design features of a virtual work environment for manufacturing regarding mental workload, spatial navigation, and performance-based evaluation for human centricity. Three design features of typical mini maps examples, which are extracted from the literature and the gamification industry, are portability, tangibility, and dimensionality. By identifying the association between design features and user navigation experience, we may observe patterns for broader VR user interface standardization that address human factors. This study employed a qualitative approach to assess five different prototypes of interactive map designs, categorized into three design features, involving both students and industry practitioners, and resulting in 114 valid data collection sessions in the prototype-based experiment. Reducing mental workloads in VR interfaces can increase efficiency and user satisfaction in Industry 5.0 through intentional use of specific design features—portability proved to have the most significant impact, consistently reducing mental, physical and temporal demands, and frustration, while simultaneously improving performance, layout perception, navigation, and collaborative efficacy. The study provides effective design feature identification, highlighting the importance of user-centric approaches in VR development for cognitive ergonomics.

Effective communication and stakeholder collaboration are vital for successful design reviews. Traditionally reliant on physical mediums, design reviews now predominantly use digital 3D models for their flexibility and cost-effectiveness. Recent advancements in extended reality (XR) technology allow for immersive interactions with 3D models, enhancing spatial understanding. However, research often limits the choice to XR or flat screens, overlooking task-specific needs. This paper proposes a methodology using functional modeling and activity theory to assess XR’s suitability for various design review tasks. By categorizing tasks and analyzing functionalities, it guides the optimal use of XR and flat screens, enhancing design review effectiveness. Future research will empirically validate and refine this framework to support hybrid design review protocols, improving collaborative design processes. 

Remote design reviews are often carried out using video conferencing apps and are limited by the lack of immersive interaction, which is believed to be addressable by using extended reality (XR). It is argued that giving design review participants control over their viewpoint through XR might enhance the design review process. This study investigates whether enhancing camera control can improve collaborative problem-solving without XR. We propose that the ability to create one’s own cognitive map of a space through self-navigation is the basis for improvement, not XR technology specifically.

The experimental setup involves a collaborative puzzle-solving task with two distinct conditions: one with fixed camera perspectives and another allowing personal camera control. Teams of three engage in a task requiring the assembly of a 3D puzzle, where two of them have half of the solution and work to guide a third individual in a puzzle assembly task.

We aim to measure outcomes in terms of completion time, the number of errors, and user satisfaction. Preliminary results indicate a complex interaction between camera control and collaborative dynamics. I intend to discuss our methodology, share initial observations, and explore the implications of these findings.

This study studies the challenges of effective communication and collaboration in remote design review meetings (DRMs) and explores the potential of Extended Reality (XR) technologies to address these challenges. The research focuses on identifying recurring communication issues and the preferences of companies within the context of remote DRMs. The study involves qualitative content analysis and industry workshops to uncover the current problems with conventional approaches and the aspirations of companies regarding improved collaboration in the DRM process. Drawing upon the insights gathered from both the workshop and design review observations, this paper highlights the features that are critical for collaborative software to handle online design reviews. XR technologies offer immersive and interactive experiences that can transform communication and collaboration in the context of DRMs. By identifying the specific challenges faced in remote DRMs and understanding the desires of companies, this study sets the stage for a more efficient and effective collaborative process. It emphasizes the adaptability of XR technologies to meet industry needs and integrate seamlessly into existing workflows. The study concludes by highlighting the potential for XR technologies to enhance collaboration in DRMs, making them a valuable tool for various industries. 

Over the past decade, the value and potential of VR applications in manufacturing have gained significant attention in accordance with the rise of Industry 4.0 and beyond. Its efficacy in layout planning, virtual design reviews, and operator training has been well-established in previous studies. However, many functional requirements and interaction parameters of VR for manufacturing remain ambiguously defined. One area awaiting exploration is spatial recognition and learning, crucial for understanding navigation within the virtual manufacturing system and processing spatial data. This is particularly vital in multi-user VR applications where participants' spatial awareness in the virtual realm significantly influences the efficiency of meetings and design reviews. This paper investigates the interaction parameters of multi-user VR, focusing on interactive positioning maps for virtual factory layout planning and exploring the user interaction design of digital maps as navigation aid. A literature study was conducted in order to establish frequently used technics and interactive maps from the VR gaming industry. Multiple demonstrators of different interactive maps provide a comprehensive A/B test which were implemented into a VR multi-user platform using the Unity game engine. Five different prototypes of interactive maps were tested, evaluated and graded by the 20 participants and 40 validated data streams collected. The most efficient interaction design of interactive maps is thus analyzed and discussed in the study. 

Correct classification of fractures according to their patterns is critical for developing a treatment plan in orthopaedic surgery. Unfortunately, for proximal humeral fractures (PHF), methods for proper classification have remained a jigsaw puzzle that has not yet been fully solved despite numerous proposed classifications and diagnostic methods. Recently, many studies have suggested that three-dimensional printed models (3DPM) can improve the interobserver agreement on PHF classifications. Moreover, Virtual Reality (VR) has not been properly studied for classification of shoulder injuries. The current study investigates the PHF classification accuracy relative to an expert committee when using either 3DPM or equivalent models displayed in VR among 36 orthopaedic surgery residents from different hospitals. We designed a multicentric randomised controlled trial in which we created two groups: a group exposed to a total of 34 3DPM and another exposed to VR equivalents. Association between classification accuracy and group assignment (VR/3DPM) was assessed using mixed effects logistic regression models. The results showed VR can be considered a non-inferior technology for classifying PHF when compared to 3DPM. Moreover, VR may be preferable when considering possible time and resource savings along with potential uses of VR for presurgical planning in orthopaedics.