Seamless Integration of Multi-touch Table and Immersive VR for Collaborative Design

During the design of a new hospital, many different stakeholders are involved. These types of complex projects require more knowledge than any single individual possesses and in this context, it is necessary for all involved stakeholders to understand, participate, communicate, and collaborate with each other to obtain a high-quality outcome. This paper presents a collaborative design system, which support these creative and shared design processes. The presented system, Virtual Collaborative Design Environment (ViCoDE), features a seamless integration of a multi-touch table and several immersive VR-systems that support interactive and collaborative design work. The system has been evaluated during two studies in a real-world context of designing new healthcare environments (e.g. operating theaters). The results show that involved stakeholders better understand, participate, communicate, and collaborate with each other and that the multi-touch table and VR-system complement each other by facilitating different design spaces—both collaborative, as well as individual.