How we built an AR shopping experience for Build.com.
We at Prolific are all about solving problems.
Recently we partnered with Build.com, the largest online-only home improvement retailer, to help them solve one. With no brick and mortar locations, their customers wanted the ability to “touch and feel” products before making a purchase.
With the launch of Apple’s ARKit for iOS 11, we immediately recognized the opportunity to use augmented reality to help Build.com connect to their customers even better, and started building a prototype to bring their products to life.
On Tuesday, we introduced “In-Home Preview,” a new augmented reality experience within Build.com’s app for iOS 11, that bridges the “touch/feel” gap and provides practical, usable information for Build.com’s customers.
We had six degrees of freedom to develop for instead of three, which gave the freedom to build models that move around, rotate, and move up and down. Each product has incredibly detailed, to-scale 3D models that can be interacted within their existing environment.
From turning on light fixtures, to adjusting a faucet, customers can understand exactly how the product will function in their space. Users can switch between various finishes of the product, and view related products, directly within “In-Home Preview.”
By incorporating this experience directly in Build.com’s iOS App, customers are able to easily access the “In-Home Preview” experience from their phones to make informed purchasing decisions even easier.
We embraced the challenge of building for a brand new iOS feature. The way our workflow was structured, we kept trying new things until we found something that felt right, then honed it further, giving us the opportunity to try things that no one has ever done inside an app before.
While other home improvement retailers have dabbled in augmented reality, we partnered with Build.com to use ARKit to offer the most precise and accurate modified reality interactions in eCommerce today.
