In Augmented Reality environments, multiple designers can interact with virtual content that overlays their shared physical objects. However, conflicts arise when two designers try to add or modify content around the same virtual space, for example, to explore a new path of ideas. Likewise, although content created by one designer can serve as a source of inspiration for others, it can also distract their creative process. To address those problems, we introduce a conceptual framework that allows multiple versions of augmentations of the same physical object to coexist in parallel virtual spaces. According to our framework, users can partially or totally desynchronize their virtual environment to generate their own content and then explore alternatives created by others. To illustrate it, we present a scenario of collaborative design in Augmented Reality, where two designers sketch in 3D around a physical sewing mannequin to design female dress.

Establishing an effective collaboration between augmented-reality (AR) and remote desktop users is a challenge because collaborators do not share a common physical space and equipment. Yet, such asymmetrical collaboration configurations are common today for many design tasks, due to the geographical distance of people or unusual circumstances such as a lockdown. We conducted a first study to investigate trade-offs of three remote representations of an AR workspace: a fully virtual representation, a first-person view, and an external view. Building on our findings, we designed ARgus, a multi-view video-mediated communication system that combines these representations through interactive tools for navigation, previewing, pointing, and annotation. We report on a second user study that observed how 12 participants used ARgus to provide remote instructions for an AR furniture arrangement task. Participants extensively used its view transition tools, while the system reduced their reliance on verbal instructions.