What if we could use A/R to assemble IKEA products?
Contribution: BA Capstone
Winner of the 2019 vision's festival [new media] washington D.C
IKEA-Assemble is an augmented-reality concept prototype that provides real-time instructions to follow along on your mobile device while assembling your new IKEA products.
2019
Product Design
AR
the challenge
A main component of the IKEA brand is the build-it-yourself experience, and yet many people feel that the furniture assembly process found in the iconic little black and white manuals, is not accessible or straight-forward. By modernizing the furniture-assembly process, IKEA can enhance its costumer’s building experience.
The initial steps towards conducting user research were all about gauging public opinions on the IKEA furniture building experience, and the results were fascinating. The un-intuitiveness of the manuals had become a meme.
designing for augmented reality
Finding the best way to convey progress and important messaging systems was an integral part of designing for Augmented Reality, as most of the screen-real estate goes towards camera usage to capture and annotate its environment.
I built my initial prototypes on handheld videos of myself building a JOKMOKK chair that I later motion-tracked in After Effects and applied UI elements to showcase the proof of concept.
insights
Holding a phone on one hand while assembling furniture with the other proved incredibly difficult, rendering this proof of concept less than ideal. At the time of its inception, AR's main application was hand-held devices; but I foresee a future for this experiment once augmented headwear, or glasses, become mainstream and we can interact with an augmented world around us, freeing our hands to assemble and build.
On a personal note, even though this project is older, I love to include it since this is where my design ambitions and curiosity for emerging tech projects began. I was an undergrad senior, eager to crack into the field and someday become a designer working with new technologies.