AR-Onboarding Walkthroughs in Mobile Apps

Summary: Mobile apps using augmented reality benefit from interactive walkthroughs that guide users through a simple AR experience. These walkthroughs should include information about what to expect, how to handle the device, and how to prepare the environment.

Augmented reality (AR) is a promising new technology that has applications in domains ranging from ecommerce to education and gaming. However, AR also comes with relatively complex interactions as it is trying to realistically combine a virtual scene or artifact with the user’s physical space.

Our Research

To understand the user experience of mobile apps that use augmented reality, we ran a usability-testing study involving 11 participants; 7 sessions were held in person and 4 were remote. This study included a diverse group of applications from areas such as education, health, fitness, art, history, ecommerce, and entertainment. The goal of the study was to see if any progress had been made since our last AR study involving ecommerce apps and to investigate how AR is used in other domains beyond ecommerce.

AR Still Unfamiliar to Most Users

Many people still have no idea what augmented reality is:  most of our participants did not know much about AR or were not at all familiar with the term. When asked “How would you describe the AR technology to someone who might not know anything about it?” eight participants confused AR with virtual reality . For example, one participant stated: “I have seen AR in demos at the store, where you put the head set on, but I don't have anything like that in my possession. So, it [my experience with AR] has been pretty limited.” Three participants had used AR before once and just one participant had used it twice.