## 1 Introduction  
Consumers' lifestyles are continually changing and demand that new products come onto the market more frequently [1]. These products are increasingly personalized so that they can, on the one hand, adapt to the functional needs of today's market and, on the other, use the product as a means of communicating a changing lifestyle [2]. This, together with the challenge posed by the paradigm of Industry 4.0 (1 4.0) at present, makes tools such as augmented reality (AR) have the purpose of promoting autonomous interoperability, agility, flexibility, rapid decision-making, efficiency, and cost reduction [3; 4; 5]. Within this framework, one of the main purposes of design engineering teams is to focus on the user to meet their needs and expectations [6; 7]. Thus, in the conceptual phase, the correct formal, functional and aesthetic adaptation of the product by industrial designers is crucial to avoid problems in the following phases of the design process or even market products with erroneous attributes [8]. For this reason, during the product conceptualization process, it is crucial to predict at an early stage during the design phase the future reactions of users to the product [9]. Thus, it must be possible to demonstrate that the requirements of the product specification are aligned with what users think and feel in real conditions of use. Historically, the most studied requirements in the field of product design have been those that allow the product to accomplish its function. However, in the last few decades, product semantics (PS) [10] and then emotional design (ED) [11; 12] have shown that not only is function important, but that products serve as a channel for communicating concepts [13; 14; 15]. Many of these concepts are related to the way of living and feeling of people and with them emotions are produced [16; 17]. The beginning of this communication process starts with what concepts want to be communicated and by what means they are going to be transmitted [18; 19]. Hence the importance of establishing design and manufacturing requirements related to PS and of being able to reliably demonstrate what message is delivered through the design properties (shape, colour, material, and texture) [20; 21]. To approach the resolution of this problem, one of the most commonly used methods by design teams to get the user's opinion before the manufacturing phase has been the creation of prototypes [22]. This is an economical and quick way to reproduce the shape of the product and be able to validate certain basic requirements [23]. Thus, the techniques developed in prototyping vary depending on the historical framework where increasing complexity in design processes and efforts to improve decision making leads to the creation of new approaches and techniques to support designers in order to improve product quality. This scenario has given rise to the appearance of hybrid prototypes (HP), defined as the simultaneous presence of a virtual representation, either through virtual reality (VR) or AR and physical support [24; 25]. Thus, the application of these processes results in a reduction of time in the manufacture of prototypes and, therefore, of the conceptualization phase [26]. In addition, it allows the process to use fewer materials, produce less waste and consume less energy, achieving the same result [27; 28]. These techniques make it possible to combine virtual interaction with physical interaction, studying specific aspects of the product [29]. However, there is no methodology that is oriented towards the evaluation and selection of textures and reliefs, being this an important facet in the detailed design of a product. There is currently a multitude of methods and techniques to help designers to graphically represent a product. Among the most commonly used are rendering and animation techniques, although it should be noted that advanced techniques have recently appeared such as VR and AR [30; 31].