Augmented reality's (AR) intrinsic ability to visualize objects and spaces generates significant opportunities in businesses where aesthetics matter.
Consider the interior design industry: Appearances don't just matter—they're the business. Yet the sales cycle has historically involved limits and bottlenecks when showing prospective customers how a finished space will look or how a particular piece or feature might change a room.
How augmented reality in design works
Augmented reality in design can dramatically enhance the customer experience and accelerate the sales cycle, leading to happier customers and growing revenues. Augmented reality in interior design does this by giving professionals the ability to create project designs, prototypes, models and other presale assets that mimic and/or overlay real-world spaces—all with minimal material costs, shipping (and returns), travel or other expenditures. This can create a more efficient and enjoyable customer experience compared with paper-based or static digital models. It can also better match customer goals and expectations with the realities of their style preferences, budgets and other variables.
Indeed, augmented reality in interior design can help customers better visualize a project—and to do so dynamically. This means customers can see different options or changes rapidly, often from the convenience of their own smartphones or tablets, without adding undue time or costs. And that's true across a number of design use cases, from a homeowner's new living room to a hotel chain's new lobby.
AR applications in use today
Consumers are already using design-minded AR apps on their own—and have been for several years now. One popular example is the IKEA Place app, which gives shoppers the ability to "place" any piece from an IKEA store in their own home to see how it will look. IKEA Place was the second-most popular app in the first six months of release. Designers and builders took notice: Measuring app CamToPlan PRO was the top paid ARKit app in the same time period, for example.
Houzz Home Design & Remodel is another highly rated augmented reality interior design app that allows users to see, create and tinker with home improvement and design projects. They can even connect with design pros in their area.
The demand is clearly there and customers are primed for augmented reality in design. People may prefer AR applications that let them visualize a designer's—and their own—ideas and creativity at the touch of a finger, overlaying different designs and characteristics in an actual room or space (as in the IKEA example).
The technology is clearly there, too. Designers can already create realistic, immersive experiences for prospective customers that take a project from the realm of imagination and put it in the palm of their hand. A personalized experience helps customers to see everything from how a piece of furniture or paint color might look to a complete remodel or new addition, and in a more detailed, sensory manner than was possible in the past.
The IT infrastructure you need for augmented reality in interior design
As AR applications mature, professionals who want to successfully leverage augmented reality in interior design work need to ensure their IT infrastructure is up to the task. This includes the apps and devices that bring augmented reality interior design to life. But those apps and devices depend on having a reliable network and connectivity that can handle bandwidth-intensive work and content, whether video, computer-aided design and other design apps, or AR.
For design and building pros, this is a two-pronged requirement. Your office or other physical locations need a reliable network infrastructure, including connectivity, collaboration and storage.
Augmented reality interior design's true upside also lies in its mobility: Your infrastructure essentially needs to be able to travel with you wherever you (and your apps and devices) go, whether to a customer's home, office, retail store or any other location.
5G helps bring AR apps to new locations
The customer's delight that comes with being able to see their space transformed before anything actually changes depends on robust connectivity. You may not want to depend on the customer's home or even business Wi-Fi if possible, since you have no control over its quality.
This is an area where wider 5G availability can help unlock opportunities. It's also why augmented reality in design appears to be emerging as an enormous opportunity. While AR apps like the examples above have been in use for several years, 5G networks and edge computing architectures have only recently begun to go mainstream, bringing mobility, coverage and flexibility to users.
As 5G and edge bring high-speed connections and massive computing power virtually anywhere they're needed, augmented reality in interior design use cases may be poised to grow. Professionals no longer need to be tethered to the corporate network to ensure they're running on reliable infrastructure. 5G and edge rollouts could even mean that people working in the field have more speed and power than they do when in the corporate office.
Regardless, if your own devices run on 5G connections, you can go to customer sites with the confidence that your designs and proposals will render as expected and deliver the impact you want. That's key to successfully realizing the potential of augmented reality in interior design.
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The author of this content is a paid contributor for Verizon.