Experimental reality: principles for the design of augmented environments

Abstract

The Laboratory of Design for Cognition at EDF R&D (LDC) is a living laboratory which we created in order to develop AE for collaborative work, more specifically “cognitive work” (white collars, engineers, office workers). It is a corporate laboratory in a large industry, where natural activity of real users is observed in a continuous manner in various spaces (project space, meeting room, lounge, etc.) The RAO room, an augmented meeting room, is used daily for “normal” meetings; it is also the “mother room” of all augmented meeting rooms in the company; where new systems, services and devices are tested. The LDC has gathered a unique set of data on the use of AE, and developed various observation and design techniques, described in this chapter. LDC uses novel techniques of digital ethnography, some of which were invented there (SubCam, offsat) some of which were developed elsewhere and adapted (360° video, WebDiver, etc.) At LDC have also been developed some new theories to explain behavior and guide innovation: cognitive attractors, experimental reality, and the triple-determination framework. Published as Chapter 5 in In S. Lahlou (ed.) Designing User Friendly Augmented Work Environments. From Meeting Rooms to Digital Collaborative Spaces. London: Springer, Computer Supported Cooperative Work Series, 200