Exploring Affordance Design Characteristics in Augmented Reality(AR) Applications for Home Interior Design

With the COVID-19 pandemic, interest in home interiors has increased and various mobile applications using augmented reality(AR) have emerged to support home interiors. However, AR applications still have limitations in terms of immersion and reality. In this context, this study aims to suggest a direction for enhancing the active participation of users by investigating the affordance in AR applications for home interior design. After surveying the theory of affordance design, items were prepared for a case study based on Hartson's four types of affordances. Then, four representative augmented reality-based home interior applications were analyzed using the items. The results of this study demonstrated that it is necessary to provide a detailed guide on how to use it in the beginning step in terms of cognitive affordance. In addition, it is necessary to enhance physical affordance to prevent unexpected errors that appear when implementing augmented reality technology. Above all, augmented reality should be technically supplemented, and rich sensory affordances such as sound and haptics should be added to increase immersion and reality. Finally, functional affordance should be enhanced by adding sufficient help functions step by step. This study will ultimately contribute to designing user-centered experiences in home interiors by utilizing augmented reality technology.