Experimenting With No-Code Prototyping
Written by Laura Paulino Periera
Our #NoCode journey started on February 25th, when Lennert de Waal, Systems Engineer at Apple, hosted the Digital Hub’s Downtime (a monthly inspiration series at Tommy Hilfiger). Throughout his presentation, Lennert discussed Augmented Reality in the retail landscape. He shared case studies built with Apple’s A.R. Kit — the kit which (according to Lennert) only required a few lines of code to build a functioning A.R. prototype.
After Lennert’s presentation, teams were announced for Tommy’s first Hackathon, taking place only two days later in partnership with Apple. The assignment: to use Apple’s Augmented Reality Kit to create a product that would enhance the relationship between Tommy Hilfiger and our end-user.
At the Hackathon, each of the seven, multidisciplinary teams would have only eight hours to come up with an idea and create the best prototype possible. At the end of the day, teams would present their results to an expert jury consisting of PVH Europe CEO, Daniel Grieder; Digital Hub SVP, Anne-Christine Polet; and two senior Apple enterprise representatives. The stakes were high, as the winning team would go on to conduct a Design Sprint with Area52, and thus get the chance to turn their prototype into a reality.
The freshly-announced Hackathon teams were over the moon, for Lennert had just proven that A.R. Kit prototypes could actually look professional after only one day of coding. However, amidst all the excitement, our team suddenly came to a mood-shifting realization: none of us had any iOS development skills.
Yes, it hurts when you mentally prepare for an A.R. Hackathon, only to realize that you will never be able to build what you just got so excited for. And yes, we did worry about convincing and exciting the Hackathon jury with our only feasible option: a physical prototype. And no, we had no way of turning back.
So, how did it go? Spoiler alert: our no-code team pulled it off with flying colors. Read on to learn exactly how we did it.
Step 1: Brainstorming
We brainstormed several, wild A.R. solutions, but eventually decided to pursue an immersive online shopping experience. In our proposed A.R. experience, users could place a digital Tommy store [i.e. portal] into their physical space [i.e. reality] and walk around the store to explore the latest Tommy collection. While checking out the collection, the user could view products and add them to their online basket. A virtual catwalk would even appear to showcase the products added to their online shopping bag.
Step 2: Storyboarding
Once our team agreed upon the concept, we storyboarded a step-by-step visual representation of it. This process required much more effort than anticipated because what she thought was not what I meant, which was not what he drew. This was probably the most challenging part of the day, but also the most crucial and valuable, as we finally had a product vision that served as the basis for our prototyping journey.
Step 3: Prototyping
Our prototyping kickstarted with a symbolic gift from the Hackathon organizers: a paper, iPad frame with a cut-out screen. This sparked our imagination and before we knew it, someone collected straws, which then sparked 3D assets on a straw, which then sparked a 3D store on straws, and then a runway with a model showcasing items added to the user’s bag.
This part of the process allowed for so much iteration and we ended up greatly enriching our initial concept.
Step 4: Finishing Touches
Once we had all the physical elements ready, all we had to do was record a video that combined our many features. We used an iPhone to film everything, using the lens as the users’ eye. It was cool to experience how all the prototyping elements came together in this phase, and also the amount of fun you can have while doing so!
Ready to see what we came up with? Check out our no-code, physical prototype below!
