Is Augmented Reality the future of UX?

I’m paying close attention to AR and the benefits of immersive experiences

As a product designer, I’m always on the lookout for emerging technologies and educating myself about their potential. The three disruptive technologies that I’m paying attention to right now is Augmented Reality (AR), Chatbots, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

In this article, I’ll be focusing on augmented reality — stay tuned for chatbots and IoT in the future.

My goal is to familiarize myself with the industries that these technologies will disrupt and understand how I can utilize them to improve the UX in products that I design in the future.

I would consider these three technologies to be in the early adopter’s phase. Companies and users are only beginning to understand how they work as well as the potential benefits that they offer.

By learning how these technologies operate, I hope to be ahead of the curve and avoid being displaced as a product designer when these technologies become more mainstream, and the skillsets are more sought after in the design industry.

Augmented Reality

Unlike virtual reality, augmented reality has a more immediate application because it requires no equipment beyond a smartphone. It also allows users to remain in the familiar landscape of their own reality. Augmented reality allows for virtually rendered objects and images to be viewed in the real world using a smartphone or AR glasses.

After the hype of Pokemon Go, augmented reality became more approachable from a user’s perspective. Pokemon Go also provided an intro to the possibilities of this technology since, for many users, this was one of their first interactions with AR.

Since Pokemon Go, users have become more familiar with AR through social media interactions like Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger AR filters. However, dog filters and dancing hot dogs are just the preamble to the future of a digital world that will be dominated by AR experiences.

AR in retail

Retail has suffered tremendously these past few years, which begs the question — what can they do to…