Onboarding UX for Mobile AR
Augmented Reality apps are becoming more popular and we will see more and more AR content coming out soon and that is why we need to talk about the importance of onboarding UX for these applications.
In this article, I will share my experience and observations building mobile AR apps and show you some examples of excellent onboarding experiences.
Let’s start with why we need an onboarding experience for AR apps and what do I mean by onboarding.
The WHY
In the last decade, many of us got used to mobile apps with a typical login screen, video content and a list view with items. In other words, we got familiar with several design patterns and know how to use them. We cannot live without zoom and pinch gestures when we interact with a Google Map or a particular share button icon. But when we start talking about AR apps, we don’t really have a standard design pattern our users are familiar with. Or maybe there should be several patterns?
I have recently worked on several AR mobile apps for children and I was watching children and their parents using the apps. I could see them struggle and ask questions like:
“What should I do now?“
“Why nothing is happening?“
I have learned one important lesson: users that played Pokemon Go or similar games before had no problem using our AR app and younger kids or users that never played any AR games before have struggled in the beginning to understand how to place an AR object on the ground. That said, we can make two conclusions from this:
The popularity of Pokemon Go has made it easier for other AR creators as it defined a particular design pattern for AR user experience
AR is still new and we need to introduce new users to different UX patterns by using onboarding experiences.
What is AR onboarding
When I think about a great example of AR experience and a creative approach to onboarding, Wonderscope game always comes to mind. As I am also working with AR apps for children, this app was a great reference.
Wonderscope team uses different tactics:
3D creature on the screen indicating that AR is working and the platform is flying in front of the camera
Use of sound to give directions: “I am not seing the landing lights“
Helping hints in the middle of the screen: “Look for a flat place with patterns“
When the surface is detected and the user can see green patterns that indicates where the platform can land
Although it is called onboarding experience, and many might think it happens only once, Wonderscope choose to run it every time when a user starts a story and there might be a few reasons to it:
Children play together and it can be beneficial to repeat the same onboarding again
Children learn fast but they also forget fast, so repeating the same pattern makes sense
Let’s look at another more minimalistic example for AR onboarding is Ikea Place app:
Ikea Place runs a few simple onboarding animations only the first time you are using the app and shows only placement indicator after that.
Environment dependent experience
Creating a great AR experience is hard. Modern mobile AR apps using ARKit and ARCore and rely on two main factors:
Good light conditions
Patterns on the surfaces
In other words, our AR experiences are dependent on the environment and it is our job to make any user aware of these factors. To make experience a little bit more user friendly, both ARKit and ARCore have available APIs that can help a developer to measure light conditions and detected features. Use those APIs to give a feedback like:
“Find a flat surface with patterns“
“There is not enough light, try turning on the lights”
Conclusion
There might be no universal solution on how to explain your AR experience to users but one thing is clear - AR apps are still new for many and we should use all available to us APIs and techniques to make this experience as smooth as possible.
As for us, we are still working on our onboarding experience and trying to improve it all the time. You can check our current implementation in our easter hunt demo video linked below:
