http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/HCI2016.

Design Principles of Augmented Reality

Focusing on the Ageing Population

Sha Liang
Communication and Computing
Research Centre
Sheffield Hallam University
153 Arundel Street, Sheffield
S1 2NU, UK
b2047406@my.shu.ac.uk

Augmented Reality (AR) is growing rapidly and becoming a mature and robust technology, which
combines virtual information with the real environment and real-time performance. It is important
to ensure the acceptance and success of augmented reality systems. With the growth of elderly
users, evidence shows potential trends for AR systems to support the elderly, including transport,
ageing in place, entertainment and training. However, there is a lack of research to provide the
theoretical framework or AR design principles to support designers when developing suitable AR
applications for specific populations (e.g. older people). In my PhD thesis, I will focus on the
possibility of developing and applying AR design principles to support the design of applications
that address older people's requirements. In this paper, I first discuss the architecture of
augmented reality and identify the relationship between different elements. Secondly, the relevant
literature has been reviewed in terms of design challenges of AR and design principles. Thirdly, I
formulate the five initial design principles as the fundamental work of my PhD. It is expected that
design principles could help AR designers to explore quality design alternatives, which could
potentially benefit the ageing population. Fourthly, I identify the AR pillbox as an example to
explain how design principles can be applied to AR applications. In terms of the methodology,
preparation, refinement and validation are the three main stages to achieve the research goal.
Preparation stage aims to generate the preliminary AR design principles and identify the relevant
scenarios that might assist the designers to understand the principles and explore the design
alternatives. In the stages of refinement, a half-day workshop has been conducted to explore
different design issues based on different scenarios and refine the preliminary design principles.
After that, a new set of design principles will be formulated. The final stage is to validate the
effectiveness of new design principles based on the previous workshop’s feedback.

Augmented Reality, Design Principles, Ageing population

1. INTRODUCTION observed (Malik, et al. 2013). It is important to

Augmented Reality (AR) as a technological enabler
is becoming very popular in different fields such as
education, design, navigation and medicine. It
combines virtual information with the real
environment (Liarokapis and De Freitas 2010) and
enhances the user’s perception such as vision,
hearing, touch and smell with the combination of
real world. Due to the development of mobile
devices, AR is growing rapidly and becoming more
mature and robust on this platform. To ensure the
acceptance and success of future AR systems, it is
vital to identify suitable AR design guidelines or
principles. AR research priorities have shifted
towards the design of effective and easy-to-use
applications (Bai and Blackwell 2012). With the
growth of elderly mobile users, increasing trends in
using AR system among older people have been
design suitable augmented reality applications to
bring benefits for older people. However, attempts
to investigate how to develop appropriate AR
applications have been fairly limited especially
those with any focus upon the ageing population.
There are several reasons for this. First of all,
designing AR applications for elderly presents
some intrinsic challenges because AR is still
technically immature in some respects, for example
registration and tracking problems exist (Kalalahti
2015). On the other hand, technology-driven AR
has caused the development of AR applications
disconnected from the users and usage contexts.
Thus, user requirements, usability and design
criteria have not been considered enough. In this
paper, I firstly present the architecture of
augmented reality system as the foundation of the

© Liang. Published by BCS Learning

and Development Ltd. 1
Proceedings of British HCI 2016 -
Fusion, Bournemouth, UK
 Design Principles of Augmented Reality Focusing on the Ageing Population
Sha Liang
ongoing research project. It aims at AR and
identifies the relationship between different AR
elements. Then, I review existing design challenges
and design principles of AR. A set of preliminary
design principles of AR have be identified by
selecting and classifying the existing literature. The
AR "pillbox scenario" is used as an example to
illustrate how preliminary AR design principles can
be applied analytically.
2. RESEARCH QUESTIONS, GOALS AND
CONTRIBUTION
The research question for this proposal is: Is it
possible to establish a set of principles for AR
design for ageing population? The general aim of
this research is to establish a set of design
principles to support AR designers to explore the
quality of design alternatives which could
potentially benefit ageing population. There are five
research goals identified in the proposal:
(i) To understand the meaning of augmented
reality and identify a set of preliminary
design principles.
(ii) To identify existing AR designs that have
the potential to address some of the ageing
population’s requirements.
(iii) To produce different representative
scenarios based on the existing AR design
for elderly.
(iv) To refine a new set of design principles via
exploring the design issues based on
different representative scenarios.
(v) To validate the effectiveness of the new AR
design principles.
By achieving these research goals, I expect to
make three main contributions which will benefit AR
designers to explore the quality of design
alternatives for ageing population and general HCI.
(i) Identifying the generic AR elements and
preliminary design principles for AR.
(ii) Creating a set of AR design alternatives
which could potential benefit elderly.
(iii) Establishing the AR design principles for
older people.
3. ELEMENTS OF AUGMENTED REALITY
SYSTEM
AR is growing rapidly and supports people in
different fields (Papagiannakis, Singh and
Magnenat‐Thalmann 2008). As a result,
opportunities for designers and researchers to
design and create new AR systems are emerging.
Before discussing the challenges and principles of
2
designing an AR system, this research has to
identify what constitutes AR system and the basic
definition.
In my previous work (Liang 2015), I discussed eight
core elements of augmented reality including user,
interaction, device, server, virtual content, real
content, physical world and transmission. Since, it
has become apparent that this initial definition was
ambiguous for the wide range of possible AR
scenarios. In this section, I will introduce eight
elements including user, interaction, device, server,
virtual content, real content, physical world and
transmission in order to create the boundary of AR
and ascertain the options available in the use of AR
for particular activities. Each of these elements is
briefly described below:
 User. The individual manipulates and
controls an AR system and who is the
immediate intended beneficiary of an AR
system.
 Interaction. One entity does something and
the other entity responds via different ways:
users and AR device interact; users and
virtual content interact; users and physical
world interact.
 Device. The hardware component includes
sensors, processors and display with
alignment of the physical world, the real
content and the physical location of the
user.
 Server. A source of data and processing is
not located on the device.
 Virtual content. The additionally computer-
generated information presents to the user
by the AR device. Commonly this is visual
and audio content, the modality of virtual
content could be 3D objects, 2D images or
text, visual elements that vary with time
(like animation, video, etc.), and sound.
 Real content. The presented data takes
directly from the physical-world context of
use.
 Physical world. The material world includes
geographic location, physical objects and
real-world environment.
 Transmission. A series of processes for
generating virtual content base on the
physical world (e.g. registration,
responsiveness).
The range of systems that could be considered as
augmented reality becomes clearer based on the
above elements. The AR system architecture (see
Figure 1) depicts the interrelationships between the
different elements. In summary, for the purposes of
this research project, AR is defined as an array of
processes to present virtual content deriving
information from the physical-world context and to
enrich the interaction between users, virtual
 Design Principles of Augmented Reality Focusing on the Ageing Population
Sha Liang
content, device and physical world. From a design
perspective, the most critical issue is to select an
appropriate physical-world context, identifying the
mechanism of transmission and creating different
modalities of virtual content in an AR system. AR
users will not concern too much on devices, but will
be attracted by different virtual content. Odom and
Pierce (2009) state that digital users often express
strong curiosity to what the virtual content could
provide but rarely, if ever, affection to the device
itself. This AR architecture (Figure 1) is the
reflection and abstraction from existing AR
experiences and characteristics. Additionally, this
AR architecture provides a more explicit basis on
which to articulate AR elements, design challenges
and the intended design principles of AR systems.
Figure 1: Generic Augmented Reality system
architecture
4. DESIGN CHALLENGES AND EXISTING
PRINCIPLES OF AUGMENTED REALITY
4.1 Design Challenges of AR system
Having described the elements of AR system, the
designers' task is to develop AR applications and
figure out these elements together (Bressler and
Bodzin 2013, Kaufmann and Schmalstieg 2003,
Woodward, et al. 2004, Cieutat, Hugues and
Ghouaiel 2012). However, "very few guidelines,
design techniques and evaluation methods have
been presented in the existing literature" (Huang,
Alem and Livingston 2012). For example,
Kourouthanassis et al. (2013) stated a new
challenge for AR designers "how can we associate,
organize, and present information into a
dynamically changing real world in a way that
protects users from cognitive overloads resulting
from the massive amount of available information?"
These challenges motivate and justify the
subsequent research with a specific focus upon
design principles of AR systems.
Some of existing papers discuss different
suggestions for capturing and sharing design or
3
evaluation knowledge for AR in different formats,
such as design approach (Friedman and Kahn Jr
2000), design guidelines (Shi, et al. 2015,
Billinghurst, Grasset and Seichter 2009, Santos, et
al. 2015, Chastine, et al. 2007, Nilsen 2006,
Ortman and Swedlund 2012), design patterns
(Schmitz, Specht and Klemke 2012, MacWilliams,
et al. 2004, Xu, et al. 2011) and usability principles
(Kalalahti 2015, Ko, Chang and Ji 2013). All these
suggestions provide the design knowledge for
designers. However, design principles are different
from other formats because principles are the high-
level and more generative concepts. Design
principles in this paper are not intended to replace
existing design guidelines or patterns but rather
complement them. Design principles could derive
from psychology or technology itself. The level of
abstraction has been summarised by different
people at different times in different areas, which is
rather confusing, inconsistent and contradicting.
There are two representative papers directly
discussing about the design principles for
augmented reality (Dünser, et al. 2007,
Kourouthanassis, Boletsis and Lekakos 2013).
4.2 Two existing papers for Design Principles of
AR systems
Table 1: Existing literatures of reviewing AR design
principles
Authors Design Principles of AR
Dünser et al. - Affordance
(2007) - Reducing cognitive overhead
- Low physical effort
- Learnability
- User satisfaction
- Flexibility in Use
- Responsiveness and feedback
- Error tolerance
Kourouthanassis - Use the context for providing
et al. (2013) content
- Deliver relevant to-the-task
content
- Inform about content privacy
- Provide feedback about the
infrastructure’s behaviour
- Support procedural and
semantic memory
Dünser et al. (2007) investigated general HCI
principles related to AR application design. They
found that AR-related studies have been primarily
technology driven and focused excessively on
hardware and software issues. They suggest that,
to develop successful AR systems researchers
need to consider both user-centred design
principles as well as technical issues. They
analysed a number of HCI design principles and
guidelines and chose appropriate design principles
for AR systems based on their findings. They then
 Design Principles of Augmented Reality Focusing on the Ageing Population
Sha Liang
validated their studies by providing existing studies
and applications that explain the relationship
between the design principles and properties of AR
systems.
Kourouthanassis et al. (2013) reported five different
design principles in an abstract manner in order to
guide the design of AR applications. They provided
a formal definition for each principle and explained
how these principles address the AR interaction
design challenges. Additionally, they included a
selective set of design examples for each principle
which illustrate indicative applications of the
principles in practice.
Design principles will be hard to offer direct
solutions to a specific problem but they are the
tools to guarantee the quality of the design. For the
purpose of this research, the design principles for
AR system now can be defined as the basic rules
to convey the design knowledge and skills that offer
the designers to create design alternatives.
4.3 Preliminary Design Principles of AR system
After selecting and classifying the previous
research, some of the preliminary design principles
have been identified to support the AR designers
with different design concepts to generate virtual
contents based on the definition of design
principles in this research.
They are changeability, synchronicity, partial
one to one, antecedent and hidden reality.
Changeability means the virtual information can
be generated changeably. Taking the Tesco
finder’s AR application design as an example,
additional information like opening times website or
video replaces the previous virtual bubble.
Designing with the content of virtual information
has to be changed easily and completely.
Therefore, different modality of the content can be
presented properly. The definition of synchronicity
is that changing the real content or clicking the
virtual content should trigger the synchronous
transmission on the following virtual counterpart.
For example, Word lens (2012) scans foreign text
and displays the text translated in real time. As the
user changes his or her point of view to another
word, the displayed translation on the device
should be designed and presented rapidly at the
same time. If the process of generating virtual
information is delayed for a long time, viewers are
unable to perceive the meaningful virtual
information. The concept of Partial one to one
describes another design concept of generating
virtual content. There is one and only one real
content to correspond with the virtual content.
However, there might be one or more than one
piece of virtual information to correspond with the
real-world content. Word lens (2012) translator
4
could display a translated word '¡Hola!' in Spanish
when the AR device scanned the real word 'Hello!'
in English. The meaning of one-to-one relationship
is that the virtual content '¡Hola!' should only
overlay the real content 'Hello!' and it is
meaningless to superimpose on any other physical
word. However, the AR translator could also be
designed to render the English word 'Hello!' into
different foreign language overlaid on one piece of
real content, such as '你好!' in Chinese, 'Bonjour!'
in French and etc. Antecedent means that the real
content (physical text) exists or happens before the
virtual content (the translated digital word). If the
virtual content is created before the real-world
content, the virtual content is meaningless because
it has no real world interpretation. Hidden Reality
means designing the virtual information will often
result in the obstruction of real-world information.
While users look through the AR device, the real
content will be more or less hidden. Word lens
(2012) AR translator generates the virtually
translated words, which replace the real-world
words. Users have to remove the AR device if they
need to see the original words. They cannot see
both the virtual and real content simultaneously.
These preliminary design principles are very rough
without any refinement and validation. They are
potentially contradictory in some cases, for
example the design trade-off between hidden
reality and partial one to one. Such wide virtual
content could become progressively disruptive and
the more richly the designer tries to create the
virtual content, the more real content will be hidden.
It is also a matter of debate if such design
principles are transferable to research regarding to
particular group of people (e.g. ageing population).
4.4 Applying preliminary design principles for
the AR design for older people - Pillbox
Scenario
One representative scenario in the domain of AR
for ageing has been selected to demonstrate how
the design principles support the AR design. Lera
et al. (2014) developed AR pillbox system
overlaying the virtual graphics to the real pillbox
captured by the camera in robotic platform. The
system recognised the QR code stuck to the real
image and synchronously generated the virtual
arrow. Users will know what the next dose they
should take (see Figure 2).
Nowadays, physical pillbox has a clear time
indicator which presented 'morning', 'afternoon' and
'evening' and Monday to Sunday information (see
Figure 3). That means people will not need to use
the AR pillbox to know what time they need to take
the next pill and the virtual content of the AR pillbox
seems to be useless. However the AR design
applying design principles (in section 4.3) may
provide designers with different design alternatives
 Design Principles of Augmented Reality Focusing on the Ageing Population
Sha Liang
to generate virtual content for medication
reminders. For example, based on the partial-one-
to-one concepts, the wide variety of additional
information could be emerged in this scenario by
different modality (text, image, 3D, audio or
vibration).
Figure 2: Augmented reality Pillbox Sources from Lera et
al. (2014)
Figure 3: Physical Pillbox, Source from
(http://www.hadnet.org.uk/_shop/shop/health/medication-
Dispenser/pill-box-week-day-economy.aspx)
Meanwhile, designers should also consider the
negative effect of hidden reality concept. The more
richly the designer tries to create the virtual
content, the more real content (e.g. the image of
the pill) will be hidden.
5. METHODOLOGY
The methodological plan of this research will be
based on three phases: preparation, refinement
and validation.
Table 2: General plan of three phases
Phases Activities
Preparation Complete the preliminary design
5
principles (v1.0); Produce a number of
examples or scenarios (v1.0) to explore
the issues of AR; recruit the workshop
participants.
Refinement Implement the first workshop (including
Experts and AR designers)
Refinement Analysis the outcome of the workshop
and recruit second workshop
participants
Refinement Formulate the principles (v2.0) and
recruitment
Refinement Produce a set of scenarios (v2.0) to
illustrate the new principles and
recruitment
Validation Implement another workshop (including
older people and AR designers) and
observe the effect of design principles
(v2.0) and identify the relationship
between design principles and the
quality of AR design alternatives for
elderly
Validation Analysis and formulate the outcome
(v3.0)
5.1 Preparation
The preparation stage in Table 2 aims to complete
the preliminary design principles (v1.0) and
produce a set of design scenarios to explore the
issues of existing AR application for elderly. I will
put the initial five design principles into the different
scenarios to illustrate and demonstrate for the
designers. Scenarios enable rapid communication
about usage possibilities and concerns among
different designers (Rosson and Carroll 2009).
Concrete examples (like scenarios) need to be
interpreted and produced because people
remember a prototypical example far better than
they remember the abstract category to which it
belongs (Rosch et al. 1976, Medin and Schaffer
1978). At that time, AR designers and experts of
researching ageing population will be recruited.
5.2 Refinement
Ko et al. (Ko, Chang and Ji 2013) developed and
evaluated the design principle to support AR using
experts’ workshops. The aim of Ko et al.'s is to
screen the preliminary principles effectively and
validate the effectiveness of using these principles.
In order to explore the possibility of establishing the
design principles for elderly people in this research,
workshops are effective technique that could collect
a group of people to produce ideas together and
bring benefits for them to discuss, share and shape
these ideas.
In the refinement stage, the first workshop will be
conducted. After that, I will analysis the feedback of
first workshop, review the observation and
formulate the design principles (v2.0). A new set of
design scenarios (v2.0) will be produced as well.
Prior to the second workshop, the second
 Design Principles of Augmented Reality Focusing on the Ageing Population
Sha Liang
workshop's participants including AR designers and
older people will be recruited.
5.3 Validation
In the validation stage, I will observe the effect of
design principles (v2.0) and the significant
relationship between design principles and the
quality of AR design alternatives for elderly. After
the second workshop, v3.0 design principles will be
formulated. I also add another period for
contingency. Some of the participants might delay
the timescale to collect their data that might be ill or
enjoy their holiday. If the number of participants is
still inefficient, another workshop or interviews need
to be organised if it is needed. When I meet some
difficulties for developing the design principles or
producing the design scenarios, I might need more
time to deal with that.
6. CONCLUSION
This paper presented the augmented reality
architecture comprised by eight elements including
user, interaction, device, virtual content, real
content, transmission, server and physical world by
using the different examples to challenge the
boundary of AR. This is also the approach to
articulate the AR requirements and narrow down
the definition. The review of AR principles
discussed by different authors and I am currently
developing the five principles for AR design. Then, I
illustrate how these principles could be applied for
specific area (AR pillbox). In the next stage, I would
like to conduct a series of design workshops, firstly
with AR designers and experts to explore different
design issues and refine the design principles.
Secondly, I will validate the new version of design
principles and continue to formulate them.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am grateful to thank our supervisor team
members, Dr. Chris Roast and Dr. Elizabeth
Uruchurtu for their insightful comments on an
earlier draft.
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