Enhancing Design Education Through Spatial Computing: A Comparative Study of Traditional and Immersive Technologies in Chair Design Projects

This innovation practice explores whether using spatial computing technologies in the form of the Apple Vision Pro and Nomad Sculpt in a mixed-reality environment affects student outcomes on learning goals and creative expression in the context of a chair design project in design education. The primary hypothesis of the study is that, even though students are provided with the exact project specifications, goals, and assessment rubrics, student design outcomes on learning goals and creative expression in the chair design project will improve when using the Apple Vision Pro and Nomad Sculpt as opposed to traditional digital design technologies (the control group using iPads and Nomad Sculpt). In the chair design project, learning goals and course outcomes were framed around projects that included mass, support, openings, shape expression, technical articulation, conversation, structure, sustainability, form, and fulfillment. On average, the subset of students using the Apple Vision Pro and Nomad Sculpt reported more intuitive, immersive, and creative experiences in the design process and the resulting chair designs in reflective essays. These findings are mainly based on quantitative measures of flexibility, idea originality, idea execution, depth of conceptual understanding, engagement, and qualitative measures of experiences through surveys and interviews. Developing an understanding of these tools to provide rich, relevant feedback and enabling productive critique and implementation on the device seems almost insurmountable hurdles due to access, new technologies' learning curve, and the inefficiency of integrating spatial computing tools into pedagogical frameworks. Overall, the research highlights the critical pedagogical advantages of using spatial computing technologies such as the Apple Vision Pro in design education, particularly in design fields requiring high visual-spatial aptitude levels. Furthermore, it provides guidelines for future research into the educational merits of immersive technologies and argues that we need to move beyond the predominantly uni-directional pedagogical models that have characterized the field for more than half a century. This study illustrates the potential of spatial-computing tools to enhance creative problem-solving and the substantial merits for future research into its broader educational applications.