AR and VR IRL: Augmented Reality Goes to Work
AR & VR IRL: Augmented Reality Goes to Work - Orium Insights
A man and a woman sit in a glass-walled lounge wearing VR headsets.Written by: Leigh BryantThink back to July 2016. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and a little yellow anime was popping up everywhere. It was the summer of Pokemon GO and everyone was in an anime hunting frenzy. But while we were all distractedly crossing busy highways in an attempt to catch ’em all, it turned out that little yellow anime was ushering in a new technological era.Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) were not new concepts in 2016. But the ultra user-friendly application of AR and its mass adoption was. Never before had AR broken through to so many people. And while it would be easy to dismiss the Pokemon GO buzz as part of a slow news cycle in a less fraught time, the truth is, it was newsworthy. It was downloaded 500 million times. That’s a lot of AR use. Even today, that would be worth writing about.As with most AR/VR applications, Pokemon GO lands squarely in the “novelty use” space. It’s a game, and these technologies have always been found in digital gaming. The specific Pokemon GO application was new and novel, but not altogether surprising.We’re accustomed to thinking of AR & VR in those terms. It makes sense to use reality-altering tech in games that inhabit different worlds. For most of us, though, thinking of those same technologies as features of our everyday lives seems implausible. But that’s going to change, and probably faster than you think.Advances to AR/VR are the next big field to open up in tech. They’ve been making inroads in gaming for years, but we’re about to see a major shift to AR/VR use in workplace settings.The reality of these alternate-reality devices is they have the potential to transform nearly every industry. From healthcare to manufacturing to education, augmented reality is poised to change how we view the world around us.A woman wears a VR headset.Apple and Google have entire divisions devoted to AR technology. ARKit from Apple and ARCore from Google each aim to bring the can’t-be-real tech to our real lives. (ARKit has even improved on the Pokemon GO experience in recent weeks.)As AR enters the mainstream, companies are finding new ways to use the technology. IKEA — known for forward-thinking, smart design — is bridging the gap between novelty and function. The IKEA Place app uses AR to show users how their existing space would look with IKEA furnishings and decor in it.IKEA isn’t the only company using AR tech to their advantage. Amazon, leader of nearly all things digital, recently filed a patent for a mirror that dresses you in virtual clothes. And several other retailers are investing in AR too, including big names in makeup and fashion. Retail stores and e-commerce experiences may never be the same.“AR brings realism to the purchase scenario by familiarizing online shoppers with products that were only photos in the E-Commerce experience,” says Gaston Viau in his piece on the shift to AR in retail.New technologies often struggle to gain traction and VR has been no different to date. But AR has an advantage that will help it win an audience: AR doesn’t need the massive hardware investment of VR.“Thankfully, unlike its sister technology virtual reality, AR doesn’t require any special hardware to use — just a relatively new phone running the latest operating system — which means that it doesn’t need to convince people to spend tens or hundreds of pounds on new gear,” notes Alex Hearn in The Guardian.The lower cost to set up coupled with the improved quality of the experiences bodes well for AR. Add in the use cases that combine fun and function, and AR is ready for mainstream in a major way.But AR won’t be the exclusive reserve of retail — we’re going to see it pop-up in all kinds of workplaces. Health care, education, and manufacturing are three major arenas AR is ready to make a mark in. We worked on a proof-of-concept for a manufacturing customer recently at Myplanet. Using the Microsoft HoloLens, we looked at how we could bring AR technology to their process.One of the immediate takeaways from the project, for us, was how much more utility there still is to be explored. Voice control AR products like the HoloLens offer accessibility options like never before. And as a tool for educating, it may be the best form of immersion teaching ever available.“The HoloLens would be well suited to be part of an instructional or training toolkit,” says Andy Peverley, Lead Developer on our HoloLens project. “What it could do for immersive learning as part of a comprehensive plan is endless.”Training for every industry could be transformed with the use of this technology. And the education system itself could be drastically altered by interactive, immersive experiences.For AR to enter our daily lives, designers will need to gain familiarity with these new experiences. Andrew Semuschak, Associate Director of Visual Design at Myplanet and Lead Designer on the project, thinks it’ll be easier than it seems.“There is still a lot that can be done with Photoshop or Sketch. The thinking that goes into these experiences is more complex and sensory-driven than a static application or feature driven site. But a lot of the same principles driving experience design and user centrism remain as supports to the overall process.”Great designers put their users first, regardless of project or technology. But AR will allow for new challenges and learnings as well.Designing for AR/VR will mean becoming flexible in new ways. As the landscape changes, the user-centred approach we’ve honed as designers for years will still be the foundation of our work. But we’ll need to explore new techniques and tools to work with the new tech, too.For the HoloLens, Andrew suggests that “any designer working on this platform would benefit from downloading Unity and experimenting with 3D modelling.” There will be similar tools and techniques for other devices, too. Upgrading skills will be a constant part of a designer’s work.But that’s part of what makes this new tech era so exciting. Designers are seekers. We want to uncover user truths, reveal hidden challenges and forge new paths to solving them. With this new era, we’ll be challenging accepted norms and learning new things with every new project.Augmented reality is already changing the way industries operate — most notably our own. Say hello to the new reality.