Extended Reality - A New Way of Persuasion

Have you ever asked yourself how many realities exist? Or how can Augmented Reality (AR) contribute to telling your story and perspective in a much more powerful way? In case you didn't, no worries. I got your back. 

In this article, you'll get a pinch of insights regarding how XR (Extended Reality) technology is used at this point to shape our perspective in Medicine, streamline development in the Automotive industry, and boost product discovery in E-commerce. 

Before jumping into the topic, getting familiar with a few concepts is essential. So, let's dive in! 

What is Reality? 🤔

While reality itself has time, space, and matter, other realities might differ in one way or another. Let's take a look at the main differences between realities. We will use simple terms and definitions for each phrase to make it easy for everyone to understand. 👇

• Augmented Reality (Time, Space, No-Matter) 

AR expands our view of the natural world by overlaying our reality with digital or computer-generated infusions. 

• Virtual Reality (No-Time, No-Space, No-Matter)

VR creates a totally different reality from our world. In VR, we're no longer talking about computer-generated infusions within reality but rather a virtual environment separate from our world. 

• Mixed Reality (No-Time, Space, No-Matter) 

MR is somehow the balance between AR and VR since it combines both realities and emerges in one. 

• Extended Reality combines all the above realities that improve or replace our worldview. All the dimensions listed above fall under the umbrella phrase that we call today, Extended Reality. 

Now that we have received some insight into each type, we can jump into the practical examples of how these different realities and specific technologies are already revolutionizing our industries and improving our lives. 

New realities in Retail and E-commerce 🛒

Since web 3.0, e-commerce has experienced exponential growth; just in the US, retail and e-commerce are estimated to achieve $ 1,329.7 billion in revenue by 2025. 

The way we consume goods and products is highly dependent on collective feedback rather than just personal needs. Customer experience and retention are more crucial than ever. By building trust and maximizing the shopping experience, you'll be able to maintain constant revenue growth. 

But how do we optimize customer experience? 

Are traditional analytical tools and customer data enough to extract all the necessary information you need to understand your customers? 

Well, they definitely cover the basic needs from a business perspective because you can gather enough data to understand your customer profile and conditions, you can also track product performance, but you might enter a blank space when you are trying to understand the shopping journey of your users on a higher level.  

Big retail companies, such as Amazon, use customers' digital footprints to improve user experiences throughout the shopping journey, such as user input, sensor data, passive and active data, and many more. 📲

Take a look at some practical examples of how e-commerce businesses use Augmented Reality to boost their customer experience and sales and to perform better data research. 

• Virtual Try-ons;
• Preview placement; 
• Interactive user manuals; 
• Social media filters; 

AR solutions such as the Ikea Place preview placement app are great tools and examples of how to increase your store's conversion rate and maintain the high engagement of your users. It can give your user full autonomy in selecting and trying out your product inside their home without making much effort from a user perspective. 

Another great example is L'Oreal which blended Virtual Try-ons solutions with social media filters to increase customer engagement and offer them alternative ways to try out their products. It gives their customers various options to engage with the products, reducing the percentage of product returns while increasing product discovery in a more sustainable and easy way. 🛍️

Becoming a reality before it happens ✍️

How we design and develop new products and materials has already changed. BMW uses augmented reality in its design process to develop new cars and test the customer experience before the implementation phase. You can present the latest design from the interior to the exterior, go for a ride and simulate a user journey through a city prior to the development phase. This new approach gives the development engineers the impression of experiencing a real-life road situation inside an actual car and can detect issues before the execution stage. 🏎️

The concept behind Smart Docklands in Dublin also used AR with VR to show and illustrate their brand new concept back in 2018 to the Dublin city council in terms of receiving approval to develop their smart city testbed in the heart of Dublin's Docklands. ☘️

I had the opportunity and pleasure to experiment with this firsthand. While I was in Dublin, I saw their initial city planning in VR, the same plan they showed to the local government. I was fascinated by the approach and the experience of local governments, tech and startup communities, business owners, universities and research centers, and citizens working together to achieve their goals. But mostly, I was impressed with how they used VR to reason their point of view to decision-makers in the public field. 

A perspective that serves the patient 🤝

Extended reality solutions are already having an impact in the Healthcare industry too. A simple VR solution that perfectly illustrates the patient anatomy and physiological representation can make a huge difference in making a diagnosis or understanding how our body works. 🌿

Planning before real-time intervention so that surgeries can be done more safely and efficiently is also done by AR and VR solutions already. At the same time, it can also give the patients the chance to view their surgery plan via VR to see how things are set to play out, thus reducing anxiety and giving the patient confidence before surgery. 🏥

A great practical example that aims to educate better both parties, doctors and patients, is Holo Anatomy. The software helps professionals visualize and see any aspect of human anatomy, such as the cardiovascular system, organs, and many parts of the human body. 

Tutors can quickly and more efficiently guide their trainees through specific exercises while illustrating a complete 3D version of the human anatomy. 

Conclusion

Extended Reality and other innovations that focus on extending our perception of Reality are tools that have already started to shape our perspective about the world and the tremendous possibilities these technologies can have. 

Undoubtedly, XR is creating numerous opportunities in many industries, such as healthcare, e-commerce, automotive, and many more. From all the practical examples listed above, we can notice a typical pattern in each case study. XR is not used as a single source of truth but rather as an alternative to influence and convert your audience to better understand your reality. 🗣️

Indeed there might be significant differences between an Ikea sofa compared to a local provider or L'Oreal cosmetics vs. an SME cosmetic company. But Ikea and L'Oreal are far ahead of their competitors since their XR alternatives are already a step closer to their customers. 🔑🚪

BMW’s Virtual Reality solution was also used to convince their engineers to accept and understand the new car designs in depth before the development phase.

In the healthcare sector, XR solutions are also used to explore the human body in profoundness. Doctors' can show their perspectives and illustrate different scenarios to their patients regarding their health status and potential outcomes after interventions, thus reducing stress and anxiety before surgery or medical intervention. 🙌

As you can see, extended reality and different XR components are used to solve minor gaps while giving space to overcome big challenges. Have you thought of using extended or augmented reality for your business as well? 👀

Check out what types of digital solutions we’ve built for our partners and if you can’t find what you are looking for, drop us an email; I’m more than sure that we can help you out.