Ikea and Augmented Reality

I’ve talked a little about Augmented Reality over the last couple of years and have seen many use cases, though many have seemed a little too gimmicky to me and not very practical.

Although this news is over a year old not I have only just come across it and I think Ikea have done a great job in showing a really practical use for AR and also have taken a step at revolutionising their product catalog.

Using their application you can actually place Ikea furniture in your house / office / room and see how it will look. The app uses your phones camera to show the room and places the required objects, which then can be photographed even though they don’t exist!

This is especially good for any New Zealander’s who want to take photos of their house with Ikea furniture – which is still not available in NZ!

Here is a video showcasing the IKEA iPhone application:

Website Usability

The whole area of Website Usability is something that I am incredibly interested in, not least as I am trying to build an international business that is predominantly website based.

Evaluating how people use your website is a challenging task and it is extremely hard to pretend you are viewing your own website for the first time.

Website Usability is a fairly hot topic and not surprisingly the web is a great resource of information.

Here are just a few links for anyone who may be interested:

Homework! Interface Design Basics for Developers

Minimising Complexity in User Interfaces

Rowan Simpsons Archives – Usability

Also for anyone who is really interested the first book to buy is Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug – a very simple and easy read.