How can you design AR UIs for beginners and experts?
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Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that enhances the real world with digital content, such as images, sounds, or texts. AR can create immersive and interactive experiences for users, but it also poses some unique challenges for user interface (UI) design. How can you design AR UIs that are intuitive, accessible, and adaptable for both beginners and experts? Here are some tips to consider.
The first step in designing AR UIs is to understand your users' needs, goals, preferences, and skills. You should conduct user research, such as interviews, surveys, or observations, to identify who your target audience is, what they want to achieve with AR, and how they interact with the real and digital worlds. You should also create user personas and scenarios to guide your design decisions and evaluate your prototypes.
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Esther Stevenson
Brand Management Supervisor at JTI (Japan Tobacco International)
As a marketing expert, I would recommend the following approach for designing AR (Augmented Reality) user interfaces (UIs) that cater to both beginners and experts: 1. Create a user-friendly interface with clear navigation and instructions. 2. Use progressive learning to introduce advanced features gradually. 3. Provide customization options for different skill levels. 4. Develop comprehensive onboarding and tutorials for beginners, and offer advanced resources for experts. 5. Incorporate a feedback mechanism to continuously improve the UI, and provide support channels for user assistance.
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Shariff Faleel
PhD Candidate at UBCO | Passionate about tech innovation | HCI & AI | XR interactions and UX
On top of this, the current tech landscape is split between mobile AR and Head Mounted Displays (HMDs), the former being the more popular. Selecting the correct one to best suit your target audience is vital.
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Zainul Abiden Iftikhar
Unity Game Developer
For Beginners: 1. Simplicity: Create intuitive layouts and clear instructions. 2. Guided Onboarding: Offer tutorials or guided tours for easy familiarization. 3. Visual Cues: Use visible hints to direct interaction. For Experts: 1.Customization: Enable advanced users to customize layouts and settings. 2. Shortcuts & Gestures: Include faster interaction options like gestures or hidden menus. 3. Advanced Features: Provide complex tools or data for specific tasks. General Principles: - Consistency: Maintain consistent design elements for all user levels. - Feedback Loop: Gather feedback and update the interface based on user input. - Accessibility: Ensure inclusivity and consider diverse user needs.
One of the advantages of AR is that it allows users to interact with digital content in a natural and intuitive way, using gestures, voice, or gaze. You should design AR UIs that leverage these modalities and avoid complex or unfamiliar interactions that require learning or memorization. For example, you can use hand gestures to manipulate objects, voice commands to navigate menus, or eye tracking to select items. You should also provide feedback and affordances to indicate how users can interact with the AR content and what the expected outcomes are.
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Shariff Faleel
PhD Candidate at UBCO | Passionate about tech innovation | HCI & AI | XR interactions and UX
This is a complex one. Natural is not always the best. With AR, there are far more options for interactions than other technologies, each with its pros and cons. Gestures and voice, are natural, but are not easy to discover and often not the most comfortable (physically and socially). Eye gaze can be comfortable for novices, but for expert users, it can be rather limiting. You also can use embodied interaction (i.e., physical movement), but that also has its limitations. There is extensive research done and being done on this whole topic. For successful interactions, keep it simple and stupid, take advantage of existing biases, and provide good feedback.
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Taha H.
Data Analytics | ML/AI | Storyteller | FAU | Ravian
Yes, there are a lot of options but Again it depends on the type of application you are building. Like voice commands can be a good Idea but If we consider using AR in the work area rather simple and basic interaction systems are better and easy to understand. Even voice is a natural way of communication but I believe people are more comfortable with hand gestures using simple buttons.
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Mohan Reddy Mummareddy
Senior Technical Lead (AR/VR/MR) at HCL Technologies
Good UI & UX design for AR applications by Google. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.ar.unity.ddelements
Another challenge of AR UI design is to balance the level of realism and abstraction of the digital content. You should consider how realistic or abstract your AR content should be, depending on the context, the purpose, and the user's expectations. For example, if you want to create a realistic simulation of a physical environment, you should use high-fidelity graphics and sounds that match the real world. However, if you want to create a more abstract or artistic representation of data or concepts, you should use low-fidelity graphics and sounds that emphasize the key information or meaning.
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Shariff Faleel
PhD Candidate at UBCO | Passionate about tech innovation | HCI & AI | XR interactions and UX
You also would want to consider how easy/accessible it needs to be. If it is digital content you want your users to be able to interact with, having it seamlessly blend with the environment might not be the best option.
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Taha H.
Data Analytics | ML/AI | Storyteller | FAU | Ravian
Again depends on what's the functionality if we take the example of google maps AR navigation feature they used arrows that pop up in the real background. The balance is there.
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Zainul Abiden Iftikhar
Unity Game Developer
Balancing realism and abstraction in AR UI design is quite a challenge. It's all about figuring out the right level of realistic or abstract elements that fit the context, purpose, and what the users expect. For instance, if you're aiming for a lifelike simulation of a physical environment, using high-fidelity graphics and sounds that mimic the real world would be the way to go. However, if you're trying to present data or concepts in a more artsy or abstract way, using simpler graphics and sounds to highlight the main info or meaning would be a better call. Matching the digital content's details with the purpose and the users' expectations is crucial in AR UI design.
Unlike traditional UIs, AR UIs have to adapt to the dynamic and unpredictable environment of the real world. You should design AR UIs that are responsive, flexible, and robust to different lighting, noise, or motion conditions. You should also consider the spatial and temporal aspects of the AR content, such as the size, position, orientation, and duration. You should use techniques such as occlusion, scaling, anchoring, or fading to ensure that the AR content is visible, stable, and coherent with the real world.
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Mohan Reddy Mummareddy
Senior Technical Lead (AR/VR/MR) at HCL Technologies
Good UI & UX design for AR applications by Google. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.ar.unity.ddelements
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Zainul Abiden Iftikhar
Unity Game Developer
Unlike traditional UIs, AR interfaces must adapt to the ever-changing and unpredictable real-world environment. Designing AR UIs involves creating responsive, flexible, and resilient interfaces that can handle varying lighting, noise, and motion conditions. Considering the spatial and temporal aspects of AR content, such as size, position, orientation, and duration, is crucial. Techniques like occlusion, scaling, anchoring, or fading should be used to ensure that AR content remains visible, stable, and consistent within the real-world environment.
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Harsh Ramoliya
AR VR Creator | Metaverse Creator
Adapting to the environment is one of the key challenges of AR UI design. AR UIs need to be able to handle a variety of environmental conditions, such as different lighting levels, noise levels, and motion levels. AR UIs also need to be able to adapt to the spatial and temporal aspects of the AR content. Use techniques such as occlusion, scaling, anchoring, or fading to ensure that the AR content is visible, stable, and coherent with the real world. Occlusion is the technique of hiding AR content that is behind real-world objects. Fading is the technique of making AR content more transparent when it is behind real-world objects. Scaling is the technique of adjusting the size of AR content to match the size of real-world objects.
Finally, you should design AR UIs that can accommodate different levels of expertise among your users. You should provide ways for users to customize, personalize, or adjust the AR content and interactions according to their preferences, skills, or goals. You should also provide guidance, tutorials, or hints for beginners to learn how to use the AR UIs effectively and efficiently. However, you should also avoid overloading or distracting the users with too much information or options, and allow them to explore and discover the AR content at their own pace.
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Zainul Abiden Iftikhar
Unity Game Developer
The guideline provided emphasizes the need to cater to diverse user expertise levels in designing AR UIs. It stresses the importance of customization, personalization, and adjustment of AR content to align with user preferences, skills, and objectives. The recommendation to offer guidance, tutorials, or hints is valuable for assisting beginners in effectively using the AR UI. However, the caution against overwhelming users with excessive information or options is equally crucial, promoting an environment that allows users to explore and learn the AR content at their own pace. This balanced approach aims to create a user-friendly AR experience that accommodates both beginners and experts.
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Harsh Ramoliya
AR VR Creator | Metaverse Creator
Supporting different levels of expertise is an important consideration for AR UI design. AR users can range from beginners who have never used AR before to experts who use AR on a daily basis. It is important to design AR UIs that are accessible to both beginners and experts, while also providing the features and functionality that experts need.
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Mohan Reddy Mummareddy
Senior Technical Lead (AR/VR/MR) at HCL Technologies
Good UI & UX design for AR applications by Google. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.ar.unity.ddelements
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Mohan Reddy Mummareddy
Senior Technical Lead (AR/VR/MR) at HCL Technologies
Good UI & UX design for AR applications by Google. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.ar.unity.ddelements
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David Allison
PM Pixel and Texel | Loves to talk about: #XR #MR #AR #VR #Gaming
It's also very important to research what the current AR landscape looks like. Test as many projects as you can so as to determine what works and what doesn't.