Towards a Development Methodology for Augmented Reality User Interfaces

In this paper we describe why we believe that the development of Augmented Reality user interfaces requires special attention and cannot be efficiently handled with neither existing tools nor traditional development processes. A new methodology comprising both a new process and better tools might be the best action to take.

A requirement analysis on issues regarding the process, the user groups involved, and the supportive tools for Augmented Reality user interface development is presented. This opens up a number of research challenges covering the tools, the process and the methodology as a whole. A new development process which is a first attempt to meet the newly found challenges is briefly outlined. This process relies on high parallelism and extends previously learned insights with usability evaluation matters. Following, our complementary proposed tool set gets introduced in detail. This set again profited mostly from new tools fitting in the usability engineering realm, which so far has been mostly ignored in the field of Augmented Reality. First steps towards a development methodology for the creation of Augmented Reality user interfaces, tackling the found requirements, are thereby made. Finally, our planed future steps are shown, meant to bring the development methodology further along, by solving important, but achievable, remaining challenges.