Conference Agenda

The integration of Extended Reality (XR) technologies, Virtual Reality (VR), and Augmented Reality (AR), into the early stages of new product de-velopment is reshaping how designers and engineers generate, communi-cate, and evaluate product concepts. Coupled with rapid prototyping (RP), XR enables low-cost, iterative, and immersive testing of product ideas be-fore committing resources to physical production, supporting more in-formed decisions on form, function, and user experience (UX). This paper investigates how XR and RP can be combined into a flexible, increasingly accessible evaluation pipeline for new product ideas. After reviewing the state of the art on XR-based evaluation methods and on the integration of rapid prototyping within immersive design processes, the paper proposes a theoretical framework that positions XR and RP not as isolated tools but as complementary, modular instruments that can be configured according to the fidelity, interactivity, and UX dimensions required at each development stage. The framework is discussed through two case studies in which im-mersive prototypes and rapidly fabricated physical mock-ups were devel-oped for evaluating alternative product concepts with end users. Prelimi-nary findings indicate that the combined use of XR and RP improves the richness of user feedback and shortens iteration cycles, suggesting their growing role as standard instruments in design practice.