Designing for Augmented Reality in aviation E-Commerce

Abstract: In-flight entertainment (IFE) is facing exciting times ahead as more and more technological advancements find its way into the IFE-systems. With the increasing hardware capabilities of IFE-systems, one exciting technology which could be seen infuture IFE-systems is augmented reality (AR). AR could allow for virtual try-on (VTO) in a webshop, where passengers can view virtual representations of for instance, glasses or headpieces, augmented onto themselves through a camera on the IFE-screen. However, integrating VTO in a webshop comes with new challenges, both for the designer and the developer. This thesis has examined design guidelines for AR in a literature study, along with general principles for user experience (UX). Based on the findings from the literature study, a prototype for a webshop with integrated VTO, targeting IFE, has been build in an iterative design process. Furthermore, a small application has been built using Google’s AR-framework ARCore for Android, where users can try different virtual glasses. The literature study, along with usability testing in each design iteration, showed that there are no guidelines which can cover everything when designing for AR; however, the design guidelines presented by Google and Apple are a great place to start. Furthermore, the usability testing showed that people have certain expectations of a webshop, which indicates that VTO should be integrated seamlessly into the application without interfering with the layout. The application development showed that ARCore certainly is a potent tool when it comes to AR-development. However, ARCore is not open source,which could make it less appealing for companies in need of highly flexible solutions.