Open Access

Ruben Schlagowski, Silvan Mertes, Dariia Nazarenko, Alexander Dauber, Elisabeth André

• With the advent of HMD-based Mixed Reality, or “Spatial Computing” as framed by Apple, creativity- and productivity-related use-cases in XR, such as music production, are rising in popularity. However, even though the importance of environments for creativity is understood, XR applications for creative use cases are often evaluated in laboratories. While the mismatch of familiar creative spaces and lab environments matters little in VR, the effect on evaluation metrics for AR applications needs to be clarified. To this end, we conducted an experiment in which participants composed and produced music on an AR HMD in their preferred creative environments and a typical laboratory environment. Looking at questionnaire data, we observed similar scores for user experience, flow, and creative experience in both conditions, suggesting that supervised evaluation of AR-based creativity support applications does not require mobile demonstrators nor freely selectable environments. Based onWith the advent of HMD-based Mixed Reality, or “Spatial Computing” as framed by Apple, creativity- and productivity-related use-cases in XR, such as music production, are rising in popularity. However, even though the importance of environments for creativity is understood, XR applications for creative use cases are often evaluated in laboratories. While the mismatch of familiar creative spaces and lab environments matters little in VR, the effect on evaluation metrics for AR applications needs to be clarified. To this end, we conducted an experiment in which participants composed and produced music on an AR HMD in their preferred creative environments and a typical laboratory environment. Looking at questionnaire data, we observed similar scores for user experience, flow, and creative experience in both conditions, suggesting that supervised evaluation of AR-based creativity support applications does not require mobile demonstrators nor freely selectable environments. Based on qualitative feedback and overall high scores for UX and flow, we discuss our observations and their implications and emphasize the need for field studies in the XR creativity domain.…