AR "Try-ons" enable people to try products before purchase, such as trying on lipstick colour using a mobile camera. While on this project I worked on both Shopper and Merchant experiences.
Problem
Brands were interested in leveraging AR to Increase brand awareness and boost Shopper confidence when coming across their products on Instagram Shops.
Expanding access to AR try-ons would require us to:
1. Expose Shoppers to AR throughout their shopping journey.
2. Make it easy for Merchants to deploy these AR experiences for their products across our platforms (e.g. Instagram and Facebook)
Part 1
🛍️ Shoppers
We needed to understand product market fit, and define a product vertical to launch to market with. We started with Beauty products as users were familiar with face tracking technology through the use of social filters which would facilitate adoption.
Using AR for Shopping Inspiration
Shoppers enjoyed using AR in the discovery phase of their shopping journey. We explored ways in which we could integrate AR more contextually in shopping experiences such as during a "Live" video. We also explored ways of nurturing discovery from within AR experiences for example searching and browsing more products within the AR camera.
Diversifying Verticals
While beauty products were successful on the Instagram Shops platform, we wanted to experiment with other AR technologies and see how we could apply those to new verticals. We explored using world tracking and 3D experiences for furniture and clothing garments. We also looked at how we might use body tracking and 3D for clothing try-ons.
Part 2
📦 Merchants
Creating effects in Spark AR Studio, required knowledge of computer graphics and scripting skills. This meant AR content creation became expensive for brands as they often needed to outsource to technical artists or agencies.
We needed to simplify creation of AR content creation for Merchants, in order for them to more easily publish AR try-on experiences for their consumers.
AR Effect Templates
Web-based creation through templates made it easier for any commerce partners to leverage face and world tracking capabilities for creating product AR try-ons. Shaders and parameters were abstracted to simplify creation flows, through more consumable and contextual language.
Real-time Simulation
Being able to preview AR content in the web tool was an important value prop for commerce partners, as real time testing saved them review time. In the past creators would review by sending test links or Spark AR files back between parties, until satisfied.
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