Immersive moodboards, a comparative study of industrial design inspiration material

This paper deals with how industrial design could be assisted by virtual reality tools based on a computerised approach. More specifically it presents a new vision of early design methodologies through immersive technologies. It also presents the results of an experimentation aiming to compare traditional moodboards with a newly developed immersive moodboard. Our results highlight the fact that immersing the industrial designer in a moodboard induces a high emotional activity, without radically modifying the meaning of the represented trend. The spatialisation of the traditional moodboard stimulates and engages the designer to interact with the immersive moodboard. The virtual reality system provides the illusion of a potential reality, which can be used by the designer as a basis for reflection. We believe that delivering this immersive experience during the early design process will help the industrial designer make style related decisions.