Virtual reality (VR) technology has made remarkable progress in recent years and will be widely used in the future. As a bridge for information exchanges between users and VR systems, the interaction interface is pivotal for providing users with a good experience and has emerged as a key research focus. In this review, we conducted a comprehensive search of the Web of Science and CNKI databases from 2011 to 2023 to identify articles dedicated to VR interaction interface design. Through a meticulous analysis of 438 articles, this paper offers a substantial contribution to the emerging field of VR interactive interface research, providing an in-depth review of the principal research advancements. This review revealed that the majority of studies are centered on practical case analyses within specific application scenarios, employing empirical evaluation methods to assess objective or subjective metrics. We then concentrated on elucidating the foundational principles of interface design and their evaluation methodologies, providing a reference for future research endeavors. Additionally, the limitations, challenges, and future directions in VR interaction interface design research were discussed, highlighting the need for further research in design evaluation to continuously refine the development of standards and guidelines for VR interactive interface design. According to the findings of this review, there is a necessity to enhance research on information design for multi-channel interactive interfaces. Furthermore, it is essential to focus on the diverse characteristics of users to propose more inclusive design solutions. Adopting interdisciplinary approaches could lead to breakthroughs in the creation of personalized and adaptive VR interaction interfaces.

Design decisions occur in all phases of product design and largely affect the merits of the final solution, which will ultimately determine the success or failure of the product in the market. Product design is a continuous process, and a large number of existing studies have proposed decision methods and decision indicators for the characteristics of different stages of design. These methods and indicators can meet the requirements of one of the phases: demand analysis, conceptual design, or detailed design. However, further research can still be conducted on the integration of methods throughout the design phase, using intelligent design methods, and improving the design continuity and efficiency. To address this problem, a TOPSIS-MOGA-based multi-indicators decision model for product design solutions is proposed, including its product design process, decision algorithm, and selection method. First, a TOPSIS-MOGA integrated model for conceptual design and detailed design process is established, the continuity of decision-making methods is achieved by integrating decision indicators. Second, conceptual design solutions are selected through the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), based on hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets and entropy weight method. Finally, detailed design solutions are selected through a multiobjective genetic algorithm (MOGA), based on a polynomial-based response surface model and central combination experimental design method. A case study of the decision-making in the design of high-voltage electric power fittings is presented, the conceptual design phase and the detailed design phase are connected through the indicators, which demonstrates that the proposed approach is helpful in the decision-making of the product design solutions.

To unravel the complex challenges addressed by product innovation, it is oftentimes essential for users to participate in the design process. However, there is a paucity of research in terms of in-depth exploration of the cognitive patterns and dynamic design processes of co-design with user participation in the existing design cognition research. The current study aimed to investigate the cognition activities involved in the process of co-design between user and designer at both the individual and team levels. The combination method of linkography and the situated function–behavior–structure (FBS) co-design model was carried out to encode and analyze the protocol data. The results showed that, at the individual level, designers and users adopted different design strategies to promote the progress of the design. In addition, the interaction activities among users and designers varied in different co-design processes. However, at the team level, the collaborators showed systematic thinking modes, and each design move was two-way. This cognitive strategy of the innovation team ensured the continuity and effectiveness of the co-design process. Theoretically, these findings will bring new insights for studies on team cognition activities and contribute to building user-centric design theory by uncovering the dynamic design processes of co-design with user participatory. In addition, the study makes a methodological contribution by illustrating how linkography and the situated FBS co-design model can be utilized to analyze the team cognition during co-design activities.

Traditional intelligent product design usually focuses on functional design, aiming to generate appropriate structures that would provide required functions. Design specifications are mainly formulized into technical descriptions or values that are related to certain functional or usability requirements. In today’s global market, to in-crease user satisfaction, the appearance design of a product become vital for users to make purchasing decisions. This is particularly true of today’s consumer products such as mobile phones, digital cameras, and other electronic products. In intelligent product appearance design, design specifications are merely described as basic geometric dimensions and types of surface materials. Additionally, the aesthetic considerations and emotional needs of product appearance are seldom discussed when establishing design specifications for product appearance design. In this regard, the objective of this study is to propose a design specification representation framework for intelligent product appearance design considering both emotional and aesthetic aspects. The framework be-gins to investigate user needs by acquiring user aesthetic experience. Based on the notion of aesthetic experience, a detailed representation model of appearance design specifications is provided for satisfying user emotional and aesthetic needs. Finally, a case study of the appearance design of digital cameras is provided to demonstrate the acquisition of user needs and establishment of design specifications based on the proposed framework.