Augmented reality (AR) is the technology that places digital things on top of the real world through your phone’s camera. Think of pointing your phone at your living room and seeing how a new couch would look in it. It gets a lot of buzz, so let’s talk about where it actually makes sense for a small business and where it’s more trouble than it’s worth.
Where AR genuinely helps
AR works best when a customer is trying to picture something in their own space before they commit. A few examples:
- Furniture and decor: seeing a piece in the actual room
- Home improvement: previewing paint colors, flooring, or fixtures
- Landscaping: visualizing a patio or planting plan in the backyard
- Signage: checking how a sign will look on a storefront
- Product demos: showing how a product fits or works at real size
The common thread is reducing uncertainty. If customers hesitate because they can’t picture the result, AR can help close that gap.
Where it’s usually hype
- Adding AR because competitors might, with no clear customer problem
- Filters and effects that are fun once but don’t help anyone decide
- Anything that requires customers to download an app they’ll use one time
Simpler options to try first
Before investing in AR, it’s worth asking whether a simpler tool solves the same problem. In many cases it does:
- Big, high-quality before-and-after photos of real projects
- Short videos walking through finished work
- A gallery organized by style, so people can find examples like their own situation
- A quick visualizer, like choosing colors on a photo, built right into your website
I built big before-and-after galleries for a landscape architecture firm for exactly this reason: their stunning yards were hidden behind small, blurry photos, and neighbors couldn’t picture the result for their own homes.
If you do want AR
Many AR experiences now run right in a phone’s web browser, with nothing to download, which removes the biggest barrier. You’ll need accurate 3D models of your products, which is usually the most time-consuming part. Start with one product or one use case, see whether customers use it, and grow from there.
What this means for your website
Whatever you choose, it lives or dies on your website. Pages need to load quickly, work well on phones, and make the next step obvious. A slick AR feature on a slow, confusing site won’t help much. Get the basics right first, then add the fun stuff.
Questions I hear a lot
Is augmented reality expensive?
It depends on how many products you need modeled and how custom the experience is. Starting small with one product keeps the investment manageable.
Do customers need a special app?
Not always. Many modern AR experiences work in a regular phone browser.
If you want a second set of eyes
If you’re weighing something like this, I’m glad to talk it through, including whether a simpler option would do the job. Read about the custom apps and tools I build, or get in touch.