Enhancing the Ecommerce Experience with AR-Powered App for Interior Design

We designed and developed an AR-powered demo app in 5 weeks to enable a realistic experience when planning interior decoration. ARrange let's the user visualise furniture in their interiors, take snapshots of their AR setup, and share them others. The project was part of our R&D portfolio.

As part of our R&D initiatives, we developed ARrange – an AR-powered demo app to enable real-time visualisation of furniture in any given interior.

Project

The goal of the AR-powered demo app was to showcase to our retail clients our AR capabilities during Netguru's live event in Berlin.

The app allowed the end user to explore AR for furniture arrangement, and the potential client – to enhance their customers' experience and improve conversions.

The project had a very tight deadline of 5 weeks.

Smartphone with the furniture AI app in use

Challenges

The primary challenge was to develop a stable, crash-free app within a short time frame. The app needed to avoid issues like lag and unpredictable behaviours.

The app had to demonstrate AR's potential in a practical use case: helping customers visualise the perfect set of chairs in their interior.

Furthermore, the app needed to showcase various chair models, colours, and wood types while allowing the user to take snapshots, and share them via default system solutions like messaging and email.

It was also essential to distinguish ARrange from other similar R&D retail apps.

Grey interior furniture set - sofa, chair, coffee table, flower vases

Implementation

ARrange was built using SwiftUI to ensure compatibility with iPhones. It allowed the user to place 2-3 chairs around a table in AR, simulating their home environment. The app supported 36 different product variations (three colours and three wood types) across four chair models.

Key features included:

AR product placement: Users could position chairs in different angles and locations, even partially covering them with a table to imitate real-world occlusion
Customization: Users could browse available models and change chair colors and wood types directly on the screen
Snapshot and sharing: A built-in snapshot feature allowed users to take pictures of their setup and share them via default system solutions like messaging or email
Onboarding and minimalist interface: The app included simple onboarding screens and a minimalistic UI designed with SwiftUI

The development team also integrated advanced AR capabilities such as scaling with perspective to maintain consistent product sizes in the scene, and optimized interaction controls like swipe-to-back gestures and long-press options for removing items.

Additionally, unit tests were implemented for the ARViewModel to ensure app stability. Crash analytics via AppCenter were set up to monitor any issues during live demonstrations.

Throughout the process, several updates and features were added, such as an initial product browser, a coaching overlay, and enhancements to the snapshot mechanism.

The team also included a pre-recorded demo video to ensure safe presentations in case of any live demo challenge

Results

The project successfully met the tight deadline with all desired features implemented. ARrange showcased AR technology effectively during the event, demonstrating its potential to retail clients as a digital acceleration tool.

The app’s features, including the ability to customize and arrange chairs in real-time, were well-received by the crowd.