There has been a growing research interest in investigating techniques to combine real and virtual spaces. A variety of textquotedblleftrealitytextquotedblright concepts such as Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality and their supporting technologies have emerged in the field of design to adopt the task of replacing or merging our physical world with the virtual world. The different realities can be tailored to enhance comprehension for specific design activities along a design life-cycle. This paper presents stateof-the-art applications of these ‘reality’ concepts in design and related areas, and proposes a classification of these realities to address suitability issues for the effective utilization of the concepts and technologies. Their potentials and implications in certain design activities are also discussed.