How do you quickly prototype AR user experiences?

I often ask myself questions like: Why would this problem be solved better with AR?, What does AR bring that I could not do with any other technology or medium? How is AR helping the end user?. This really helps me describe the true value of the AR experiences I develop.

In AR solutions, the first thing I do is make sure I understand the problem really well. I often talk to people who have that problem to get a better idea of what's going on. I also try to learn about their lifestyle and culture because different people may need different solutions. Before I create a prototype of the solution, I explain my idea to the people it's meant for. This way, they can picture how it will work before it's even built. This helps a lot in making the AR product more useful and valuable.

Prototyping is all about taking your ideas and quickly turning them into something you can see, use, and improve. With AR, it's a tad more intricate because you're blending the digital with the real. Imagine crafting an AR plant. It shouldn't just exist; it should belong - sitting on your table, casting shadows. Beyond design, there's the trial phase. Launch it, gather feedback, and tweak it. Those moments where users go, "This feels off"? They're your signposts, pointing to improvements. Begin this loop early to save time and remain on course. Captivate users by delivering a great experience, and then, addressing their needs with your innovative solution.

I generally start with the debriefing of the client's needs: who's my target audience? Which technologies are available/recommended for the project? What are the creative insights? After that, I start building a board (along with my creative team) with the creative ideas that matches the creative insights and the technical aspects. From this point on, we can start building a storytelling guide that will shape the creative idea. Now we have the bare minimum to start building the UX (generally using Figma or Adobe XD) and finally the UI.

Defining requirements should be the first step. Requirement analysis ensures the developers and other project members understand the client's and stakeholders' needs. This clear understanding minimizes the risk of building something that doesn't fulfill the intended purpose. Precise requirements help define the project's scope, thus preventing scope creep, which refers to uncontrolled changes in a project's scope. As long as you don't go out of scope, your time on corrections will be shorter, letting you create faster and more accurate prototypes.

I'm lucky to have a bunch of students of my AR in Business module to act as test users for prototypes. Indeed one of their projects is to create and consumer road-test simple prototypes....I have used Worldcast.io to great effect and this year we're going to give Adobe Aero a try.

While most of our time is focussed on ideating the solution, usability of the end product should be a prime driver that should also influence on which platform and tool has to be choosen. Mostly first time users would not have the fancy expensive hardware and would end up using thier cell phones or tablets which would work beautifully for some cases but not for all. So instead of choosing a platform and working all the way towards a platform I would work backwards and then arrive at the tools and platform

In my experience, I often use Spark AR Studio to prototype AR experiences for other platforms. It's quick and relatively free of many bugs. When choosing a platform for marketing purposes for your AR experience, it is also important to consider your target group and where you can find them.

To decide what platform to create with, you will need to identify how your audience will be using your AR experience. Social AR experiences require you to build the experience on each of the social media companies their specific software (Lens Studio, Spark AR, Effect House, etc). If you are building for the web you can decide among a few options, 8th Wall is currently the most prominent. If you are pushing to an app the most widely used program is Unity. Unity works across most platforms.

Instead of fiddling around with different platforms, first take a look at what your competitors are doing. For example, if you sell furniture, you will see competitors offering configurators and virtual try-ons in different ways. Some have an app, others use different platforms with WebAR capabilities. You will quickly learn and experience what would work for you and what not.

It always starts with a pen and a paper. One tool I found useful is MockFlow where you can use customizable themes and components. It makes it easier to visualize your ideas. It's collaborative, trackable, and integrates with many useful tools like heatmaps, Trello, Slack, etc..

An excellent app for this, that allows rapid prototyping in a spatial env is @ShapesXR. 2d prototyping will be very limiting when trying to create applications that are used in 3d space.

Not big on sketching, but PowerPoint works wonders for me. I create step-by-step slides using basic shapes to represent elements in my projects. Animation adds dynamism, and this approach lets me iterate ideas swiftly.

I find it a good practice to sketch things down with pen and paper. My office is full of sticky notes and notebooks filled with AR projects I’ve dreamed up. I typically start by loosely mapping out idea by writing down keywords and the basic functionality. Next, I sketch out a full storyboard that explains each part of the experience and its interactions. Once the storyboard is complete, share it with trusted peers, they can provide feedback that you can quickly iterate on before you begin production.

Best practices for sketching: - It would help if you sketched the application screens based on the requirements, scope, and target platform's features. - The goal is to get ideas down rapidly, so avoid getting bogged down in details. Initial sketches should be quick and may be messy. - Find the sketching tool that is comfortable and effective for you. - Take advantage of the speed of sketching by creating multiple versions or variations of an idea. Engage team members and stakeholders by sharing your sketches and collecting their feedback to refine the concepts. - As feedback comes in and ideas evolve, continuously refine and re-sketch as necessary.

When starting on the production of a project, start by using placeholder assets for each of the interactions. This allows you to iterate quickly on the functionality of the experience without getting bogged down with asset creation. Once you have your core features established, you can replace the placeholder assets with more refined designs and animation.

Prototyping with both low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes is crucial in product design. Low-fidelity prototypes enable quick idea exploration and cost-effective concept validation, while high-fidelity prototypes offer a realistic representation for detailed design evaluation. Together, they allow designers to strike a balance between creative exploration and precise user testing, resulting in well-informed and user-centered product designs.

Just like when building an app or a game, once you have decided what you want to test, then it is often important to start building out a white box of your experience. The white box phase of your experience will help in testing things like scale in AR. Often you can get a sense of if an interaction will work well, before you have created the final assets.

After deploying u can run the program , increase the size of the object, angle of the object, animation of the object, add audio of the product.

If possible and resources are available, high-fidelity prototyping is undoubtedly the way to go. This is true because immersive mediums like VR/AR offer multisensory experiences, far different ones from watching a video on a screen. Low-fidelity visualizations like classical storyboards are limited in communicating immersive experiences (especially if the person on the other side has little to no prior experience with XR tech). They lack spatial context which is a key factor in any XR experience, AR included. However, there needs to be a healthy balance between time invested in the HF prototype and the expected results from the project. Personal exp shows that LF prototypes are really poor in communicating XR ideas to beginner users.

Find your balance between quantity and quality. While it is important to create a refined experience, it’s equally important to consistently test new ideas. Set realistic expectations for yourself, not every project needs to be a masterpiece. Iterating on your ideas allows you to consistently improve your projects and keep them up to date in a rapidly evolving industry.

Testing and iteration are vital phases in refining your AR UX. These processes involve assessing your AR experience with real users and in a close-to-intended target environment. By doing so, you can uncover and address any issues, errors, or gaps in your AR UX, ultimately enhancing user engagement and experience. We are testing a prototype, so keep in mind the speed at which we test to help us either continue to improve the prototype or scratch it. Embracing the "fail fast" mindset is essential, as it encourages continuous improvement and adaptation based on data and insights.

Testing and iterating is a key part to create the best AR experience possible. In VR Express, we have 3 test phases. One test is with random people representing the target audience for that particular project. This provides helpful in setting a baseline for end-user expectations; spotting bugs; implementing actionable insights among others. Second test is with subject matter experts on the topic/ theme of the project. This helps us spot gaps in the presented subject specific information and gives us an additional perspective of insights. Finally we test our experiences with kids and/or 60+ seniors. This is a great and definitely an underappreciated way to determine how functional & easy to use your AR app really is.

Testing and iterating on a product is a vital part of the design and development process. Through testing with real users, collecting feedback, and making iterative improvements, a product can evolve to better meet user needs and achieve its intended goals. This continuous cycle of testing and refinement is essential for creating products that are user-friendly, effective, and competitive in the market.

I think the best way to creating great AR experiences is to not do it in isolation. Ask people for input throughout and test it with a good group that understands AR and another that doesn't. It's also important to find like-minded people that are working in AR and don't be shy and ask them for input or help. You'd be surprised how many people really like giving input and the value this adds.

I think that onboarding users to AR is an elephant in the room when talking about UX. We have these beautiful AR experiences but they are triggered by physical objects, and users are literally passing by without realizing they are there.

To ensure a seamless user experience, invest in user training and create documentation. Provide clear, user-friendly guides that explain how to use your AR application effectively. Consider interactive tutorials, tooltips, or video demonstrations to help users quickly grasp the functionality.

When I think of Augmented Reality, Pokemon Go's massive success immediately comes to mind. Digging deeper, what truly propelled Pokemon Go's triumph was its foundation in location-based gaming. To swiftly prototype AR user experiences, consider adopting a similar approach. Start by defining a robust user engagement strategy that harmonizes real-world locations with dynamic AR elements. Employ accessible AR development platforms and tools to craft a proof-of-concept, facilitating iterative testing and refinement until achieving the desired level of engagement and functionality.

Important aspects need to be defined at the initial design stages, such as users digital competencies in applied AR technology, access to AR capable devices, accessibility issues as well as the objectives of these experiences, what is needed to be offered/accomplished. Based on the above, storyboard design of a low-fidelity version, including key elements to achieve the required user's mood, i.e. describing mild/rapid animations/transitions, SFX and music, appropriate avatars' gestures, body language, facial expressions, contribute significantly to prototyping dev time. The content delivery approach must be considered, i.e. gradually unlocking more advance AR features in order to offer a play-to-learn approach to the content experienced.