In 2017, as augmented reality was reaching the masses with the arrival of ARKit and iOS11, IKEA was faced with the question of how it could remain ubiquitous in this fast-changing tech landscape.

Without any guidelines or best practices to rely on, we started working on IKEA Place — an app that would allow customers to visualise furniture in their spaces through the camera on their iPhones. The twist was that if IKEA were to premiere a new AR app with the launch of iOS11, we only had two months to meet Apple’s deadline.

Meeting people where they are

Placing furniture in augmented reality was an obvious use case, yet the potential importance for IKEA was huge. Not everyone lives near an IKEA store, and nearly 40 percent of people experience an ‘imagination gap’ — a lack of confidence in taking risks regarding changes in their homes.

With augmented reality, IKEA could suddenly meet people where they were. So that is where we started — at home and through the phone cameras people would use to augment it.

Using lighting, space, and sound, the app renders an accurate image of a product in the customer’s living, dining, bed or bathroom, enabling them to see if it fits their space, style, and purpose — without leaving home.

Human touch

Rather than getting caught up in the technology, we prioritised human sensibilities to guide the UX and UI. Accessibility to the many people and their needs is what formed the app’s purpose. Without much time to prototype or iterate, our design approach was almost philosophical, leaning on natural behaviour. At SPACE10, we see this approach as a necessity, especially when the interfaces we’re designing become more and more contextual, fluid and integrated into our lives and the physical world.

When IKEA Place was first released, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook described it as ‘the future of shopping’. The app became a best-in-class example of how to meaningfully use augmented reality and was shortlisted for or won more than 30 design awards.