SwageXR: Designing Gamified AR Applications for Industrial Training

This paper presents a case study of SwageXR, an augmented reality application that gamifies a tubing assembly exercise in industrial training, and documents its design process. The authors apply an existing design and development framework by Gilardi et al. (2021) to an industrial context, aiming to contribute a structured approach to designing XR training applications. The central contribution is the addition of interaction rehearsal and VR-based pre-visualization as design methods that provide stakeholders with contextual understanding of an AR application before it is coded.

The design process combined a contextual inquiry, in which the lead researcher took part as a trainee in a two-day course at an industrial training company, with semi-structured interviews involving four training instructors. Thematic analysis of these interviews identified a need to increase trainee engagement, a preference for AR delivered via smartphones, and interest in time-based, real-time competition with score-based leaderboards split into daily, monthly, and all-time categories. Observations showed that the core task of identifying and assembling tube fittings from four manufacturers was quick to complete, which is why gamification was targeted there. Paper prototypes were developed through interaction rehearsal, reviewed by the company's technical director, and then translated into a low-fidelity VR prototype built in ShapesXR and presented in a workshop with company staff.

The process produced concrete design decisions, including procedural generation of components, immediate feedback on assembly correctness, access restricted to the training facility, 3D scanning of fittings for higher-fidelity models, and a limited interaction space on the desk to reduce fatigue. The authors acknowledge limitations: the study did not involve trainees in the design process, interaction rehearsal was performed only by the designer, and the VR walkthrough requires equipment not always available to participants. The coded prototype was still in development at the time of writing, using Unity and the XR Interaction Toolkit for Android and iOS, so effectiveness in engagement and learning remains to be evaluated.