AR and Developing Ideas and Prototypes

AR Testing can Identify Errors Before They Become Costly

Augmented Reality is an expansion of the real world through the inclusion of digital objects. Unlike Virtual Reality (VR), which uses totally artificial environments, AR allows for digital information to be overlaid over real-world environments. This ultimately allows for experimentation and testing out new ideas in a fast, cost-effective fashion. This is because there is no need to create physical versions of the digitally imagined elements until the project is ready to hit production.

In addition to confirming great ideas, it is a great way to cut out ill-fated innovation before investing time and money into them. For many organizations, this is a game-changing breakthrough - both financially and logistically.

AR Provides Visual Insights

Innovation starts with an idea, but implementing it is another challenge altogether. As part of the KICKBOX Intrapreneurship Program, innovators use clear frameworks and various templates to move projects along while also visualizing data to promote informed decision-making. When integrated alongside AR through developing prototypes and ideas, those benefits grow tenfold. Instead of seeing what an innovation could look like, employees can see what it would look like.

In short, AR provides a far clearer look at the prototypes before entering the production phase. This also makes it easier to try out multiple ideas or use A/B testing to finetune an idea so that it's perfectly tailored to meet the needs and expectations of the target market once launched.

AR Feeds Seamlessly into Iterative Processes

Modern customers are more demanding than ever before, and only innovative brands can meet those expectations. Since Augmented Reality (AR) merges the virtual and real worlds, it offers an ideal environment for experimenting with innovative solutions to enhance existing products or resolve existing issues.

This can be particularly useful in various forms of incremental innovation, whether it’s adding to existing products or using the experiences gained from failed ideas to spearhead the next innovative concept. Moreover, the reduced risks also ensure that intrapreneurs gain psychological safety.

Most tech innovations now rely on iterative processes as advancements mean that products need to evolve. AR empowers businesses to quickly visualize and iterate on their concepts, ensuring that they can respond promptly to evolving customer demands and preferences. 

AR can be Developed as the Product Itself

One of the biggest obstacles standing in the way of innovation is a perceived lack of time. It is shown that creativity requires energy, peace of mind and perspective and the evidence suggests that acting upon ideas when they are still new in the mind tends to produce superior outcomes statistically. It is therefore important to give employees more freedom to take responsibility and work on ideas without constantly having to seek permission.

AR isn’t only useful during the concept development or prototyping phases. In fact, it can be a customer-facing product in itself. KICKBOX has helped fuel bottom-up innovation at companies like Swisscom, where a project called MARS (mobile augmented reality support) showcases how AR can be integrated into a product or service.

This project, developed by intrapreneurs via the KICKBOX program, guides customers through troubleshooting processes in relation to their Swisscom devices through the use of augmented reality. It provides an independent, self-serve solution that helps customers get their products up and running in the most efficient way. The innovation essentially focused on turning outdated instruction manuals into an interactive AR solution. And, of course, augmented reality was used to test the capabilities before taking it to market.

Using Augmented Reality in innovation can reduce can help to save financial and time resources by speeding the innovation process and streamlining it. Through efficient use of this technology, AR can play a significant role in taking innovators from an idea to a concept and help them to iterate much faster, ultimately resulting in a faster time to market for products.