For my AR app review I chose IKEA place. Originally I was doing Warby Parker’s app but apparently the AR features are only available on an iPhone X or newer so I had to scrap that. The IKEA place app had a good presentation, requested you read the privacy policy which wasn’t very long and made you understand that any data they ‘took’ (images) would only be held on their server for about 4 hours. I really appreciated how forthcoming they were with that information and kind of set the tone for a good app experience overall.
Once past the privacy policy, I started to notice some of the apps’ real faults. When sampling furniture it doesn’t ask for you to map out your space which is kind of an indicator of some of the issues to come. You select the item you want to test and tap where you want it to go. This places it in your room but it isn’t aware of your other appliances/furniture at all. Chairs, lamps, beds, all of them clipped through my living room furniture and walls. In an ideal scenario where you have a completely empty room and are trying to find an aesthetic for your home or apartment, I can see where this would come in handy. The 3D models aren’t very detailed or textured so you don’t get a really good feel for them in your space. The app’s pretty intuitive but none of the features are explained at all so if you do get confused you’re just gonna have to figure it out. The last real flaw I noticed was that it seemed odd you cannot buy the furniture in the app, seems like a wasted opportunity.
There were some things I liked however. The privacy policy being upfront was one. Their catalog of items to sample is massive, and even though the models aren’t textured or really good, the lighting on them seemed to match up well with my room at the time I did my review. That could have just been a coincidence though.
Overall the app was a pleasant experience, it was fun to mess around in anyways even though I think the useful applications of the app are few and far between. I think if they cleaned up their models and allowed for interactivity (ie. no clipping into other furniture, actually scanning the space the furniture is going into) they could have a really powerful and usable app on their hands.