6 Golden rules for AR Design

AR is a new medium with an entirely new set of design challenges and opportunities. It’s not only changing the products we create, but it’s also changing the tools we use and the approaches we follow to design these products.

With the rise of mobile devices and their hardware capabilities (see our list of best smartphones if you need an upgrade), mobile seems the obvious place to experiment with AR design. But when it comes to designing for mobile AR (or MAR), it’s important to remember these eight foundational rules.

1. Identify your audience and their needs

It’s essential to remember that AR experience is not about technology; it’s about people. People don’t care about technology, all they want is an experience. That’s why we should not prioritize technology over experience.

Why do people start using new technology in the first place? The answer is simple – technology helps people do the things they usually do. but more efficiently. And by ‘efficiently’, we mean in a way that's faster, more productive, with fewer errors.

If your goal is to design meaningful and usable experience for your users, start with thinking about them. Invest in user research – meet with people who represent your target audience, conduct a series of interviews, show some samples of your future product and observe their reactions.

2. Validate your hypothesis

While this point sounds way too obvious, many product teams skip the step where the team should validate whether the product brings value to users or not. To create a truly valuable experience, you need to think about how the product you create will fit into your users' daily lives. If you have a hard time imagining how the product will align with users' needs, most probably your product will never be used.

To improve your chances of success, use storyboarding to show how users will use AR. By using storyboarding, you’ll see a real story of interaction with a product in the real-world environment. When you have a specific place for interaction (such as a living room), you will be able to consider all the constraints this place has.

3. Don't clutter the viewport

Avoid placing too many 2D controls on the screen. When users experience AR, they usually focus more on the scene and the object of interaction, and they tend to pay less attention to UI controls. Thus, they can even miss the control. Unless you need to provide the critical UI control (such as controls with high-frequency of use), try to rely on gestures, like in the ifly380 app pictured above.

4. Prevent change blindness

Every time a new object appears in a visible area of a viewport, you should try to prevent change blindness (when users don't notice new objects). Use meaningful motion and animated effect to make the transition predictable for users.

5. Avoid full-screen takeovers

Avoid elements that suddenly appear on the user viewport and block their experience. First, any unexpected objects in viewport create a distraction and break the flow. Second, it ruins the sense of immersion (it becomes evident that the AR world is not real). Even when you want to show an error message, try to make it subtle.

6. Onboard your users

The ultimate goal is to create a zero learning curve. Onboarding is something that will help you to achieve this goal. It’s vital to make the onboarding process as clear as possible, so the user understands exactly how to use the app.

Stay away from static walk-through tours. Static walk-throughs work equally badly for traditional mobile apps and AR apps. Usually, people skip such tours in the attempt to experience to app themselves. It’s way much better to follow the ‘Show, don’t tell’ approach. A user should reach a camera view as soon as possible. Don’t explain the advantages of using the AR app, show it. Use the camera in scanning mode and provide contextual tips.

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