Co-designing with Experts: Exploring Scenarios for Haptic-Enhanced Virtual Reality in Automotive HMI Design

This study investigates how virtual reality (VR) and haptic technologies can enhance the efficiency and sustainability of automotive HMI design through a co-design focus group with seven expert design- ers, exploring their expectations, attitudes, and concerns. A user story and five potential use cases were developed based on literature findings and used as discussion materials. VR was recognized as a promising tool for usability testing, enabling early-stage assessment of ergonomics and interaction design, thereby reducing reliance on physical prototypes and minimizing environmental and economic costs. Despite the potential of haptic feedback, participants expressed skepticism regarding its techno- logical maturity, highlighting the need for further development to ensure its effectiveness in design testing. As highlighted by the co-design focus group results, future development efforts should focus on enhancing VR realism, improving haptic feedback, and optimizing HMI prototype man- agement, while also addressing VR context customization, data collection for usability testing, and backend challenges.