# Streamlining Haptic Design with Micro-Collision Haptic Map Generated by Stable Diffusion +
## 4 User Study: Streamlining Haptic Design with Generative MCHa Map
### Experiment Design  
To evaluate the effectiveness of our generative MCHa map tool in supporting haptic design tasks, we conducted a controlled experiment targeting the following questions:  
1. Can non-haptic designers, without a background in haptics, utilize our tool to create compelling haptic experiences effectively? 2. Can professional haptic designers benefit from our tool in terms of quality and efficiency? The experimental procedure is briefly summarized in Figure 5.  
We invited 8 professional haptic designers, each with over 3 years of experience in haptic design. They were highly familiar with tools such as Apple Core Haptics, RichTap Creator, and the design of vibration feedback for gaming controllers like those from Xbox and Sony. Additionally, we recruited 10 designers without a haptic design background but with expertise in interaction design and user experience design. Figure 4: Comparison of traditional workflow and our generative methods. Figure 5: Procedure of user study. This figures shows the procedure of the user study. We first invited designers to finish the design task in four conditions and evaluate the workload under these conditions. Then we recruited participants to experience these design outputs, and they evaluated the quality of haptic design. The participants were assigned to the following experimental groups:  
* GP: Professional haptic designers used traditional tools (RichTap Creator) to complete the design task. * GPG: The same professionals repeated the task using our generative tool; they were allowed to tune the output with their specialty. * GU: Non-haptic expert designers used traditional tools; they were taught to use the tools before the experiment. * GUG: Non-haptic expert designers completed the task solely using our tool. Since visual texture design is not the primary focus of this study, we used Stable Diffusion to generate consistent visual textures for all materials. For professional haptic designers, we first asked them to complete the task using traditional tools. Specifically, they used RichTap Creator by AAC Technologies to design vibration-based haptic feedback corresponding to each texture, simulating the sensation of brushing across the surface (GP). Specifically, designers were first provided with a unified set of visual textures. Based on these textures, they sketched the expected finger-surface interaction profiles while sweeping from left to right across the texture, focusing on surface height variations and potential collision events. They then estimated a vibration intensity envelope according to the magnitude of undulations and the severity of perceived impacts. Next, they assessed the perceived surface smoothness and marked expected changes in roughness along the sweep trajectory, leading to a sketched frequency envelope representing perceived vibration frequency variations. Finally, these envelopes were implemented in RichTap Creator, where users generated corresponding vibration fragments by editing the intensity and frequency curves. The resulting vibration patterns were exported as.he files, containing the complete LRA drive signals. Then, we asked the same designers to use our proposed tool to complete the same task. They used Stable Diffusion in combination with a VAE model trained by us to directly generate haptic texture maps for the four materials. After generation, they fine-tuned the parameters for each texture's haptic feedback using our methods (GPG). For non-haptic designers, we first guided them through the traditional design process. Before starting the formal design task, we provided step-by-step instructions on how to use conventional methods, along with multiple practice sessions. This was intended to reduce unfamiliarity with the tool and mitigate any potential learning effects due to repeated design tasks. After the practice phase, they completed the haptic feedback design for the texture stimuli (GU).