How Augmented Reality is Transforming the User Experience
Did you know?
Little known fact augmented reality (AR) technology has been around since the late ‘60s! Perhaps the father of AR, Ivan Sutherland, invented the first AR technology, back then they called it the “heads up display” a head or helmet-mounted display. Intended for use in virtual flight simulation for the US airforce and for NASA’s X-38 spacecraft.
What is AR?
Augmented reality is computer-generated imagery, superimposed onto the real-world, typically through a camera, projector or transparent visor. Check yourself before you wreck yourself — augmented reality should not be confused with virtual reality, where the user is completely immersed in a virtual or digital world.
Better than real shopping
With the insanely fast rise of online shopping, brands have been battling to give the best shopping experience in the hope of selling more. AR has looking to give brands a winning advantage — let's face it, rather than merely scrolling through products on a screen, what we really want is to fully experience it before we buy. AR can get us much closer to this!
AR is proving particularly valuable within these situations, as it can provide the user with the perception of an actual product, allowing them to interact them to view it at their own pace and even bring it into their home.
Augmented reality adds value to the user experience by simplifying the shopping journey while also making it useful and memorable for the user. It can also act as a crucial differentiator for your brand experience, helping to strengthen brand loyalty, enhance engagement, conversions and of course, revenue.
False start
Now in the nursery stages of the technology in the consumer environment, AR may have had teething problems and has perhaps been put on the “Gimmick” shelf.
But AR consumer experiences has advanced significantly in recent years with AR applications becoming more readily available. The development of faster mobile processors, depth measuring cameras, plugins such as Wordpress VR and Apple Safari’s Quick View technology all help make augmented reality a reality.
Marketers, developers and designers must start to consider how they can incorporate AR into their brands’ experience to shorten the distance between the online and real world.
Some of our favs
This week on Medium, we look at some of our favourite spellbinding and immersive examples of brands using augmented reality.
Quick Look AR — Shopify — Pure Cycles
With Apple’s recent announcement of AR Quick Look, we can now enable these AR 3D models to be viewable in AR directly through the Safari browser on iOS 12 devices — without the need for a separate mobile app or a clunky headset. That’s what Shopify AR is banking on with its technology. This is one of the smoothest least barriers to entry and best-looking experience we have seen thus far! I can now virtually buy new bicycles to my heart’s content filling my flat!
Nothing is worse than buying a new piece of furniture, lugging it all the way home, struggling to build it, to find out, it’s too big or just doesn’t look right. Ikea is aiming to take that stress away for its customers with the help for AR. Utilizing augmented reality technology to help customers see exactly how Ikea furniture will look and fit in their home. Ikea’s “place it” app utilizes Apple’s ARKit augmented reality platform to place 3D realistic models in the frame of a user’s phone accurately sized down to the millimetre. This is a great way to ‘see’ if a product will fit. Not only is it practical and beneficial, but it also has brings the fun factor back to interior design.
London design agency OMSE has created an augmented reality campaign for the event venue Printworks in London. The graphics used are based on Printworks heritage as western Europe’s largest print works. When user initiates the Printworks AR app and hold their phones up to the static graphics, the app transforms the text into 3D printing rollers which you can move around on their screen, allowing them to bring the poster to life in a memorable and immersive experience.
Augmented reality is becoming an increasingly valuable tool within website design to enhance the user experience. As people become more accustomed to AR, creatives, marketers and developers get more experience in the technology, brands will be forced to develop progressively immersive shopping experiences that seamlessly bring the real and digital worlds together creating an interactive, entertaining and informative experience for the user.
A genuinely useful little app that lets you plaster any wall with the entire range of Dulux paints. Gone are the days of spoiling your wall with tester samples, and even leaving the comfort of your sofa. I know my mum would go bonkers with this! The Gif above shows us trying it out on a wall in one of our meeting rooms. It’s not perfect, but it’s more than enough to try some ideas out.
Google has implemented augmented reality within its Google Translate app, making it easier than ever before for people to understand different languages. All users have to do is position their phone in front of the text they want to translate and choose to convert it into 30 different languages. Not only does this increase convenience for individuals travelling to various destinations, but it also provides a valuable tool for understanding and communicating with others.
View Ranger has implemented augmented reality into its new Skyline app. Skyline allows users to explore the outdoors by overlaying waypoints and navigation arrows onto a user’s camera, allowing individuals to identify different mountain peaks, lakes, cliffs and glaciers and determine the best route to reach them! This provides a valuable tool to users, not only can they identify different routes, but it provides users with useful information about their location and or destination. The outdoor recreation industry is worth a staggering $400 billion in the U.S alone, and Skyline is a great example of how companies can differentiate their products within a competitive industry by increasing engagement with users and ultimately increase revenue.
