Virtual reality as a communication tool

A design project meets the showroom designer, there is a distance of 80 kilometers between the designer’s office and the job location. In addition, the client is not familiar with design processes in showroom design. Different background knowledge and different imaginational ability leads to a communication barrier that also appears in the showroom design process for the high-quality installation products of Johann Straußberger GmbH. Several misunderstandings led to stalled decision−making during the design phase, so the possibility of using virtual reality as communication tool was explored.

The outcome shows that virtual reality in combination with intuitive user interfaces and selected parameters, is able to help clients showing their needs and affecting the design process in a positive way. However, the effort of using virtual reality for small scale projects is currently not competitive and still too time consuming for both parties.