Designers
Antoniea Richardson, Cole Heiner, Dan Pollack, Jojo Sprufera, Jonnie Lee, Karen Kluttz, Matt Davis, Monica Vezzali, Nathan Hatfield
Year
2021
Category
Product
Country
United States
Three questions to the team
What was the particular challenge in the project from a UX point of view?
This was the first augmented reality software we have ever designed. Since AR is still in its early adoption phase, there are no adequate 3D prototyping tools, which meant we had to fully build all our design concepts regardless of if we were going to use them. This added a lot more time and effort. Additionally, to effectively test the ideas, the builds needed to be robust and reflective of the AR environment. Since we didn’t have headsets to view the concepts during user testing, we had to combine different research methods to get enough data to iterate.
What was your personal highlight in the development process? Was there an aha! moment, was there a low point?
There were many highlights and lowlights throughout the process. One aha!-moment was when we were able to simulate the AR environment using a user’s laptop camera. This allowed us to test the design concepts without the need for an AR headset. Our default input modality is gaze-dwell which is extremely difficult to construct and simulate without a headset. The biggest lowlights were the challenges of not being able to conduct in-person research due to Covid safety restrictions and the lack of equipment and available participants. We had to ship hardware to participants which was an operational challenge.
Where do you see yourself and the project in the next five years?
We hope that the ThinkReality A3 software becomes a springboard for new AR innovations and democratizes the experience for everyone. Our robust user research and testing across a diverse population paved the way for UX improvements across the entire industry. Our goal is to continue providing UX guidance for companies designing in this space and to become the leader in diversity and accessibility-driven AR experiences. In five years, we hope that ThinkReality A3 becomes the leader in AR enterprise technology and the preferred developer platform for enterprise teams.
