If you're hoping to create a space that looks like it could be featured on your favorite HGTV show, it may be as easy as shopping where the designers shop. HGTV designers have a knack for turning an ordinary home into a perfectly put-together space.

Unusual Places HGTV Designers Shop For Interior Decor

We gave interior designers Laura Hodges, Patrick Mele, and Xavier Donnelly a photo of the same empty NYC cafe—then asked each of them to transform the space in their particular style, however they pleased with no restrictions.

3 Interior Designers Transform the Same Empty NYC Cafe

Kirk Pinho is a senior reporter covering commercial real estate. Since joining Crain's Detroit Business in 2013, he has written about leasing, development and property sales in Detroit and its suburbs, as well as the industry's trends, personalities and quirks.

Black-owned office furniture company expands to Detroit

When it comes to interior design, contrast is often used for visual appeal, whether it is a mix of textures, colors, or shapes. One of the sharpest styles showcasing contrast—and most enduring—is the use of black and white design.

Designers Always Use These 6 Decorating Tips for Black and White Spaces

Here we are focusing on living rooms. Some of H&G's favorite designers talk us through the rooms that they loved to work on and provide a ton of inspiration about color choice, patterns, textures, decor, and layout. living room furniture Pink Ground by Farrow & Ball Clare Sa

We asked 7 interior designers to share their favorite living room remodels – here are the fabulous projects they picked

Our latest lookbook focuses on quiet luxury and features projects including a French hotel and a Swedish Grace apartment that exemplify the trend for discrete, yet sumptuous interiors. Classic, hardwearing materials and simple,

Eight quiet luxury interiors from Biarritz to Stockholm

8 essential style secrets from interior designers and stylists on how to embrace this latest feel-good decor trend

Dopamine decor is the latest trend for happier homes – here's how interior designers are using it in their homes

For this Wellesley bedroom, a designer pairs floral wallpaper with a fanciful headboard featuring tailored accents.

Home design ideas: Turning a primary suite into a peaceful retreat

“The rising trend of statement range hoods using unique materials like wood, stainless steel, and mixed metals is an exciting feature to watch in 2024,” she says. “It adds a distinct, custom touch to kitchen designs and serves as a focal point for the space.”

8 Kitchen Trends Designers Can't Wait to Try in 2024

When it comes to designing your home, what do you think about first? It’s not usually hiring a professional interior designer. No, instead, you immediately think about that endless list of decisions that must be made. What room do you start with?

Why it Pays to Work With a Professional Interior Designer

Houzz

houzz

182 Stories To Learn About Augmented Reality

Let's learn about via these 50 free stories. They are ordered by most time reading created on HackerNoon. Visit the to find the most read stories about any technology. Retail /Learn Repo 1. How Computer Vision is Taking Over Manufacturing and Retail AI continues to take over almost every industry ripe with data. Computer vision expands AI’s capabilities, allowing machines to not only process data, but also gather information on their own, which unlocks completely new opportunities for businesses. According to research by ABI, total shipments of computer vision sensors and cameras will reach 16.9 million by 2025. 2. Discover How IoT is Transforming the Retail Industry IoT enables data sharing among all the devices in the network, irrespective of their medium of connectivity. 3. How Retail Tech Startups are Providing E-commerce Brands With a Competitive Advantage The rapid rise of retail tech has touched almost every part of shopping; from discovery apps like Yelp to Buy now pay later brands like Klarna and Afterpay. 4. The New Frontier of Price Optimization What would be the price of our product or service? This question has bothered businesses forever. Several pricing models have been spawned as a result. But the concept of price optimization is a fairly new one. At least to businesses that are not in the hospitality or airline sector. 5. 5 Steps To Build Your Dynamic Pricing Engine With the emergence of online platforms, B2B businesses have had to reconsider their pricing strategies. But, these same technologies help the organizations create dynamic B2B pricing models that bring substantial profits if implemented correctly. For example, an integrated sales and B2B pricing software can help sales reps negotiate with customers and reduce the processing period. 6. How Can AR Furniture Apps Simplify & Boost Sales: GFG Use Case AR furniture apps have proved its tremendous impact on business. Have you heard about Houzz AR app used by more than a million users? It made customers 11 times more inclined to buy an item and spend 2.7 more time on navigating it. So how can you create a robust app like this? What problems could you solve with another AR app? 7. An Artist’s Homing Beacon to Creativity: Connecting with the Universe is The Ultimate Transcendence Join me on a roller coaster ride of lessons learned, winning Noonies 2022nfor Kubernetes, DevOps, Cheeky Genius of the Year, Retail,  & spiritual transcendence. 8. Customer Support: Is Your Team Ready for the Holidays? This year’s holiday shopping season will be different due to altered consumer behavior from COVID-19. Some things though will stay the same, like the increased pressure on your customer support team. 9. Drop Shipping Alternatives to AliExpress in the US This article will explain why AliExpress isn’t always the best option, and what other options there are if you think AliExpress isn’t for you. 10. Busting Financial Myths: "The Ignorant Retail Investor" If you Google "ignorant retail traders," you'll find mentions on the Financial Times, Seeking Alpha, Wired, Berkshire Money Management, The Street, and even The South China Morning Post. 11. A Complete Guide To SKU Management For Retailers SKU management is the process of creating, organizing, and perfecting an alphanumeric SKU system for the items in your inventory. SKUs give inventory details. 12. Million Dollar Question: Should Retail Investors Get into DeFi for Money Legos? The crypto industry offers users a spectrum of investment tools: synthetic assets, liquidity pools, index tokens, lending solutions, yield farming, hodling, etc. From among the big list, yield farming stands out the most because it promises the highest returns promised by any project. Coming from the traditional financial environment with low interest rates, beginners and small investors are drawn to the idea of quick gains, requiring just a few clicks to start making profits. 13. Bricks-and-Clicks, or Why Omnichannel Is the Future of Retail In-store and online retail have always stood in passive opposition to each other, but in the first quarter of 2019 this confrontation took an especially dramatic turn. Multiple mass media outlets published articles with agitated headlines like “It's Official: "Clicks" Have Topped "Bricks" (CBS News) or “Online Shopping Overtakes a Major Part of Retail for the First Time Ever” (CNBC), which proclaimed the final surrender of bricks to clicks. 14. AI-Powered Predictive Merchandising is Shaping the Future of Shopping As long as consumers choose a hybrid shopping model, merchandising will keep driving sales. 15. Innovative Retail Technology For Brick and Mortar Shops Find out the Top 5 Retail Technologies brick and mortar shops should adopt in 2021 and how VR, robots, and other retail tech can help them. 16. Retailers Guide To Win Holiday Sales in 2020 The holiday season is all about spreading happiness. It is also the season of big sales for retail stores. Retailers have high hopes of ending the year with big profits. But just like many other things, holiday shopping will be different in 2020. And that’s why retailers have to adjust their holiday sales strategy to achieve their year-end goals. 17. D2C 101: Why the Future of Retail is Vertical Commerce and D2C Brands For as long as humanity has existed, so has commerce in the form of sharing, bartering and selling resources. Even before currency in its most rudimentary form has come into existence in Mesopotamia in 3000BC, economies were created through bartering where people would exchange goods/services based on perceived value (Person A would want to sell Item A to Person B who finds Item A valuable in return for Item B which holds more value to Person A than it does to Person B). 18. Walmart Is Now Preparing To Take Part In the Metaverse Walmart, one of the largest retailers in the world, is getting ready to create their own NFT (Non-Fungible-Token) collection. 19. How Artificial Intelligence Can Be Beneficial in the Retail Sector A look at how artificial intelligence can be beneficial in the retail sector 20. Smart Alternatives to Sampling Campaigns in Supermarkets During COVID-19 Find out how you can replace sampling campaigns during the COVID-19 pandemic to be safe and still engage with customers. 21. 40% Americans Do Not Know What Affects Their Credit Score Your customers’ credit score is one of the most important numbers of their financial lives. This three-digit number is the most used credit scoring model by lenders for evaluating a borrower's creditworthiness or the likelihood that they’ll repay the money. 22. The Retail Evolution: Customers Demand Enhancements to the Shopping Experience Andreas Hassellof, Founder and CEO of Ombori, explores how changing customer behaviors impact retail, and drive retail technology innovation. 23. 8 Ways ERP Systems Can Maximize the Profits of Retail Businesses Large retailers use ERP software to make sure their operations are running smoothly. Such tools are designed to address the problems faced by retailers today. 24. 5 Trends Changing Retail Enterprise Resource Planning in 2021 What are the main ERP trends in retail? Feel free to explore this guide to keep up with the best updates to potentially implement them into your business. 25. How To Use Technology To Enhance Your In-Store Marketing Strategy Robots, AI, and other tech are transforming retail experiences. Find out what technologies best suit your in-store marketing efforts and how you can use them. 26. Make Money With Retail-Arbitrage-As-A-Service Using Amazon and AliExpress [A How To Guide] As I detailed in this recent article surrounding Twitter automation to buy cryptocurrency during pumps and in this way-old Hackernoon and Medium discussing how I once toyed with the morality of ethical hacking for profit – it’s obvious that I often have ideas for tech businesses that don’t really get off the ground. 27. How to Improve Sales With Real-Time Price Monitoring Flexibility in pricing is the key to beating the competition 28. A Detailed Guide on Conversion Rate Optimization in E-Commerce Improve your online sales with my comprehensive guide on Conversion Rate Optimization in E-commerce. Learn about website design, UX, A/B testing, sales funnels. 29. Cybersecurity Measures to Secure Dropshipping Automation While automation is a very important innovation in dropshipping, a lot of data is involved for an effective transaction and Hackers tamper with that data. 30. 4 Reasons Why Your Business Should Accept Mobile Payments In an age where our daily lives are interconnected to technological advancement, it may be time to consider using a mobile device to make payments while on the go. We live in a world operating on ease and immediate response, so it may be time to convert towards this new, innovative option. 31. Commerce Advertising in Ukraine: How the Ads Industry Has Changed in 30 Years The Ukrainian advertising market has been affected by different events for over 30 years. I show cool and stupid Ukrainian ads examples throughout its history 32. Why the Gap Needs Kanye West Can Kanye West help the Gap dig itself out of deep hole? 33. How Technology Is Enabling Traditional Retailers To Adapt To A New Normal Technology has advanced rapidly when you look at how far we've come in the last decade or two, even when comparing the mobile phones of 2000 versus today. It's changed the world. Something else changing the world is the COVID-19 pandemic. As we get used to our new normal, technology will play a major role. For retailers, technology will be the most important tool in their journey to survive. 34. Shelf Edge Technology: Digital Price Tags Using Renewable Energy Sustainable, cost-effective, and consumer-friendly: digital price tags are entering the fashion industry through shelf-edge technology. 35. 7 Tech Trends Reshaping the Retail Industry What is the future of retail in the post-COVID-19 world? The 2021-reality trends show how technology and innovations help retailers face challenges. 36. Innovative Solutions That Will Change The Shopping Experience How can fashion brands enter the digital world using AI? Read my new interview with a maker of a highly-innovative technology that makes it a reality. 37. How to Get Started with Amazon IVS and Amazon Personalize in Retail This blog will walk through a detailed example of how to configure and deploy live streaming and personalization into an ecommerce site. 38. How AI is Changing the Retail Industry Data is the crucial information businesses need to remain profitable. AI can bridge the gap between unused data and those profits in the retail sector. 39. What Retailers Can Do with Excessive Inventory Pile Up from the Pandemic Are retailers focusing on sustainable options to move excessive inventory? 40. The Whole Shebang of McDonald’s Business Model and Branding Strategies Let’s unravel McDonald’s Business Model and Branding Strategies. Read what makes the world's largest restaurant chain by revenue profitable & recession proof. 41. Automation & Fashion on Demand: Producing as Ordered Some brands are choosing to go back in time by using a made-to-order business model. Why aren't other brands making the leap? 42. How the Use of Machine Learning is Challenging the Retail Apocalypse Whether retailers like it or not, the future of retail is here, in the form of smart algorithms. Machine learning will change much of the industry's norms, often for the better. Retail trends point to the store of the future being automated using the latest technology. Brick & Mortar, physical retail... however you like to call it, your favourite real-world store is about to get a whole lot more digital. Whether that's the best idea remains to be seen. 43. How do Loyalty Programs [un]work? Thoughts about retail marketing transformation for the fragmented post-covid market with millions of smaller retailers and re-emerging regional manufacturers. 44. A beginner’s guide to Computer Vision in Retail Anyone with a wet finger in the air will by now have heard of the “retail apocalypse” sweeping through the developed world’s malls. “People aren’t spending in stores anymore”, your quarter-informed uncle complains, before moaning that youths are too busy Instagramming their avocado brunches to burn crosses on people’s lawns. Indeed, the old retailing models aren’t working as well as they used to. The fact that they were terrible models to start with probably had something to do with it. 45. Everything You Must Know About the Business Model of Walmart: World's Largest Retail Giant Let’s learn about the business model of Walmart. How did the world's largest retailer provide Everyday Low Prices yet earn $ 572B as revenue for 2022? Read on. 46. What Chinese Retail Trends Tell Us About the Future of E-Commerce Amazon, mobile, A.I… there are dozens of new threats, technologies and processes a strategy executive must keep in mind to stay ahead of the curve when faced with skydiving sales. 47. The Digital Shopper: 4 Retail Tech Trends That Will Stay Post-Pandemic Retailers are perfectly poised to adapt with ease as we move into a post-pandemic world, having experienced such a necessary yet dizzying acceleration in digital transformations over the past year. 48. What are the Sectors Most Prone to Cyber Threats? This article presents a rundown of the industries that have been kicked in the teeth by cybercriminals amid the pandemic. 49. Technology Should Enable Craftsmen To Go Back To Doing What They Do Best The pandemic (you know the one) has disrupted stores and restaurants in a way no one could have expected at the start of 2020. Health scare, mass unemployment, e-commerce, Amazon competition, ballooning debt… we didn’t start the fire, it was always burning… but now there are ambers everywhere and we’ve got to get to work to save the good china. 50. Is Shopping In-Store An Experience Of The Past? Top retail experts share their knowledge and predictions on the state of in-store marketing in 2021. Check out their views on how COVID-19 affected brick and mo Thank you for checking out the 50 most read stories about Retail on HackerNoon. to find the most read stories about any technology. Visit the /Learn Repo

50 Stories To Learn About Retail

100 Stories To Learn About Online Shopping

Spring is the perfect time to add more color, liven up your home, and eliminate unwanted things. Mobile apps are incredibly good at sparking creativity, and behind each app is a team of developers who have ensured that you can find new ideas and tools with just a few taps. Today, I will share some apps to help you transform the space around you. I made this list of apps based on my and my friends' experience. With their help, you can find inspiration and references for home renovation or make a detailed plan and find contractors—it all depends on your current needs. I sorted the apps by how easy it is to use them, so I advise starting off with the more accessible ones listed in the beginning and then moving on to the advanced solutions mentioned closer to the end. (4.5 rating on App Store) Decorio If you're looking for inspiration and ideas on how to redecorate your living room or kitchen, Decorio is an excellent app to try. To get started, take a photo of the room you want to redecorate, and the app will offer you different design options. With 24 interior styles available, you will find a look that suits your taste. You might be surprised to see your room in boho or chic styles and discover new angles to view your space. Whether you are up for bold experiments or prefer tried-and-true interior formulas, you'll have references at your fingertips. Decorio is powered by AI, which means it generates infinite design options for you to choose from. Save your favorite designs and share them on messaging apps to communicate with contractors or get opinions from people you live with. (4.8 rating on App Store) iScanner Once you've decided on the decor ideas, it's time to find out the dimensions of the space and any decor items you might need. While you could use a standard tape measure, a more technologically advanced solution is available. iScanner is an app that uses your phone's camera to measure the length of objects and calculate their area. You can measure all the necessary parameters and receive the results in a convenient PDF format. This is especially useful if you plan to change the color of your walls or floors and need to calculate how much wallpaper or paint you need. Even if you're making small changes in your home, such as replacing a few paintings or a rug, iScanner can quickly help you find their dimensions. https://youtu.be/2frLXKqjIN8?embedable=true (4.3 rating on App Store) Planner 5D For more advanced renovations, apps are associated with manufacturers of building materials, furniture, and home accessories. These apps visualize the interior and allow you to order all the goods necessary for the renovation. Planner 5D is one such app. With its help, you can create simple 3D visualizations of interiors and browse the catalog for items you like. You can also choose furniture and decor elements and apply different textures and colors. After saving the project, you can conveniently send it or continue working on it in the web version from any device. https://youtu.be/ap947LGcdCo?embedable=true (4.5 rating on App Store) Havenly If you find it challenging to decide on what to change in your interior or are afraid of getting a result far from what you want, you can hire professionals with the help of special apps. For example, the Havenly app allows you to consult an experienced designer. Based on your wishes and preferences, a professional will advise on how to do the repairs and provide a carefully selected list of products for a particular interior. (4.8 rating on App Store) Houzz The list of decor apps would be incomplete without Houzz. This app is an encyclopedia of interiors, with millions of photos of design ideas that you can filter based on room size, budget, or style and save the best as references. The app also connects millions of contractors worldwide, so you can easily find a good designer or architect near you. Additionally, you can order the home items that you like. The app has a news feed about design and repair, keeping you posted on the latest trends and life hacks. Final Thoughts I'm sure that these apps will be useful to all DIY lovers and people who want to freshen up their interiors. You can group the apps into one folder on the Home Screen of your mobile phone for easier access. To be honest, sometimes I open them just to see beautiful rooms, relax,  and imagine how I can change my interior depending on my mood.

5 Mobile Apps to Help You Redecorate Your Home

This article is part of my ↗️ where I share insights on building things in tech. Join me :)‍ Note: resource newsletters 👋 I’m , a product builder. I’ve built multiple apps using the method: , , , , , , +more Zoe Chew rapid MVP sneaker app personal FAQ meal kit app virtual event app SaaS tracker food delivery content app At , I’m on a quest to understand the and how we can improve other people’s lives through product creation. I analyze with revenue potential — at the intersection of Internet culture, consumer tech, and platform economy. VentureScale future of the Internet startup opportunities Today’s post is about increasing lifestyle experiences. In this venture report, I break down 3 market opportunities: Helping home-based entrepreneurs to sell online (Consumer marketplace) Unlock luxury experiences for everyday people (On-demand app) Increase employee motivation and talent retention (HR tech) Below is the PREVIEW of the report with research-based tech trends , product frameworks, revenue models to help you make better decisions on building your next big thing. Trend #1: Vertical B2C Online Marketplaces Existing B2C e-commerce giants like , , and are going after the — by offering products that span multiple categories and cover a wide audience scope. Amazon eBay BestBuy horizontal approach New B2C online marketplaces are created to cater to specific types of communities, creating and focus on a particular segment or vertical to grow. For example, unique buyers/sellers experiences is a marketplace for buying and selling sneakers. GOAT is a marketplace for home furniture driven by a community of interior designers & home improvement enthusiasts. Houzz allows you to buy, sell and trade luxury watches online, driven by communities of watch collectors. Watchbox As continue to rise, more vertical-specific marketplaces will emerge to help small business owners to make money from home. online businesses 🚀 Takeaway Any hobbies can potentially be a vertical marketplace opportunity. Connect people who want to as an at-home business. See — Startup Opportunity #1. monetize their hobbies Trend #2: New On-Demand Platforms Will Emerge The on-demand economy has to ordinary people. What used to be “only the rich could afford” are now accessible for everyday people through an app — anytime, anywhere: unlocked “luxury services” Chauffeurs → , , , Uber Gojek Lyft Grab Personal grocery runners → , , Instacart Shipt FreshDirect Today, on-demand services have exploded — transportation, shopping, food delivery, home cleaning, etc. to help people save time and eliminate hassles. across different industries New on-demand services will focus on in different aspects. — get a personal stylist service. — get massages, facials, and lashes done at home by professionals. enhancing our lifestyle experiences Stitchfix Urban 🚀 Takeaway Help people to curate and make money as a business. See — Startup Opportunity #2. lifestyle experiences Trend #3: Reinventing Employees Experience and Creating Talents Moat Remote work is (HR) practices forever. changing human resources Interviewing and new employees are no longer done in face-to-face meetings. is becoming distributed around the world. is conducted through Zoom. onboarding Hiring Team-building New problems that are born out of remote work practices are still awaiting solutions. How can you from multiple countries? How to build great company virtually? How to ensure the of employees? How to create workplace ? manage payrolls culture mental health engagements The future of HR will be focusing on leveling up remote — onboarding, employees reward, elevating motivation, diversity, and personal values: employees’ experience helps leaders build highly engaged teams remotely. Lattice consolidates employee rewards and recognition processes in one place. Fond helps managers build trust with their team members. Officevibe The will be the . Companies are fighting for the best engineers & designers by driving up wages. Those who can and satisfy their employees will drive out talent competition and for their businesses. next Internet world war tech talent war retain talents create defensibility 🚀 Takeaway Help companies maximize through rewards. See — Startup Opportunity #3. employee satisfaction 👉 Download full version of this report Startup Opportunity #1: Wood furniture marketplace An online marketplace for buying and selling handcrafted wood furniture, woodworking products, and tools — driven by a community of woodworking enthusiasts, furniture makers, artists, and designers. For Who Builders, designers, and home-based furniture entrepreneurs who want to start selling wood furniture online. Handcrafted wood furniture makers. (📥 Full version) 3 more target audience descriptions. Problem Horizontal platforms like , , and aren’t built specifically for wood furniture enthusiasts; therefore, they generate for wood furniture sellers since these platforms are targeting a wide range of industries and audiences. Wayfair Ikea Etsy, The Home Depot diluted interests and lower sales volume (📥 Full version) 2 more problem definition examples. Solution For sellers: list your handcrafted wood furniture (new or second-hand) and start selling online; create a seller page, upload product photos, pricing, and description. For customers: discover wood furniture made by wood furniture makers; shop by category (e.g., living room, kitchen, bathroom, outdoor, decor); filter search by furniture colors, sizes, prices, materials, or free shipping. Online store for wood furniture. (📥 Full version) 4 more solutions and feature examples in detail. Revenue Model Take a percentage cut from the buyers-sellers transaction. Marketplace commissions, 2% to 5%. (📥 Full version) 1 more revenue stream to add to your pricing strategy. Venture Scale E-commerce, Furniture, Home Decor, Online Retail (1) Industries: E-commerce, Online Marketplace (2) Business Model: High (3) Market Potential: ◼️◼️◼️◼️◻️ Global are on the uptrend and will reach by 2024. retail e-commerce sales $6,388 billion of all businesses in the United States are now and will continue to rise in a post-pandemic future. More than 50% home-based (📥 Full version) 2 more research evidence to prove the validity of the market (4) Execution Strategy: Go to Etsy, search for “ ” keywords. Manually curate wood furniture products and . Look for top sellers on Etsy — for example, has 1.9K+ sales and DM the maker. furniture list them on your website busywood (📥 Full version) 3 more strategies to gain traction and acquire customers To create a profitable consumer marketplace, layer defensibility around your business to drive out competition. (5) Moat: (📥 Full version) 2 ways to create business moats for this marketplace platform Want more? Get the full version of this single report: 🔑 Breakdown of (Helping home-based entrepreneurs to sell online / Consumer marketplace) Startup Opportunity #1 🔑 Breakdown of (Unlock luxury experiences for everyday people / On-demand app) Startup Opportunity #2 🔑 Breakdown of (Increase employee motivation and talent retention / HR tech) Startup Opportunity #3 All 3 ideas combined, you will unlock: 🔑 3 startup in 1 report opportunities breakdown 🔑 7 definitions target audience 🔑 12 definition examples problem 🔑 13 and feature examples in detail solutions 🔑 6 you can create to monetize your startup ideas revenue streams 🔑 17 on each startup idea — how to prove market potential and create competitive advantages in-depth evaluations 🔑 10 ways to these startup opportunities execute 👉 Download full version of this report [1] Find me on: Personal Site / Twitter / LinkedIn 🔥 [2] Get teardown insights in your inbox — Click here to join my newsletter 💌

3 Ways to Monetize B2C Marketplaces, On-Demand Economy and Employee Motivation

The very term can spark thoughts of futuristic, high-tech gadgets that have become commonplace in the world of sci-fi movies. However, the into our daily lives may already be underway. ‘augmented reality’ integration of AR Once upon a time, AR really was confined to the domain of science fiction, but times are changing at a rapid rate. Whether we realize it or not, AR is already beginning to make its presence felt in the daily lives of many of us. (Image: eMarketer ) Although much of the past decade was dominated by consumer excitement at the growth of the virtual reality headset market, AR users are expected to continue to grow at a faster rate than the entire VR market over the near future. Let’s take a deeper look into how AR is already entering the daily lives of millions of consumers and how it’s helping them along the way: Facial Recognition If you’re a fan of having the latest gadgets and apps, it’s extremely likely that you’ve been using AR without even noticing. Snapchat, for instance, utilizes the technology to revolutionize the selfies that are uploaded onto its app - with various pretty, outlandish, or surprising filters. recognising faces and overlaying them AR allows for continuous tracking, which means that users can scrunch up their faces without distorting the filter. Some special effects are even triggered by users pulling funny faces. As augmented reality and become more intertwined, visual industries like beauty and fashion are likely to become much more immersive for users moving forward. facial recognition Engaging Retail Another increasingly common use case for AR in everyday life can be found when it comes to buying clothing, furniture and even homes. While virtual tours can guide users through homes they’re looking to buy from the comfort of their own living room, buyers can use dedicated apps like and to run virtual tests of what sort of furnishings they would like in their new living space. Houzz DecorMatters (Image: TechCrunch ) One of the early leaders in the industry of AR furniture shopping is IKEA, which has developed its own app, IKEA Place, designed so that customers can virtually try our new chairs, tables and other fittings before they buy them. Retail giants Amazon rarely shy away from innovation and have attempted to cut down the volume of clothing returns the company experiences by creating a ‘virtual changing room’ app. The AR-based application scans your body measurements and assesses your preferences before offering styling and sizing advice to you. The will be capable of generating how the clothes would look on you through an embedded presentation layer. As a result of this integrated digital layer, the fit of clothing can be significantly more accurate, meaning that customers can get a into whether their purchases are going to suit them. virtual dressing room app comprehensive insight The Arrival of AR Wearables Not very far in the future, instead of using our smartphones or having to wear bulky glasses, we’ll be able to fit into regular frames and become visually interconnected with our environment everywhere we go. AR lenses (Image showing AR glasses unit shipments worldwide from 2016 to 2022. Source: Statista ) Soon, we'll just be able to fit AR lenses to our regular set of glasses. Considering that there are various , and hence, a wide variety of frames, there may need to be a movement in technology in order to make a one-size-fits-all AR lense. face shapes The arrival of AR wearable technology like augmented glasses is set to be a watershed moment for the industry, and Apple is rumoured to be its entry on to the market in the form of Apple Glass - eyewear that has the power to digitally overlay information to appear in the wearer’s line of vision. close to announcing With other major rivals like Facebook and Microsoft also rumoured to be developing their own AR eyewear, we’re likely to see the race for adoption reach fever pitch in the coming months. Healthcare Although AR eyewear isn’t quite ready to hit the high street just yet, augmented healthcare is already being utilised for a variety of medical treatments as well as in diagnosing illnesses. Notably, are turning to AR to help improve their training, meaning that they can then perform surgeries with the help of information provided to them via augmented reality layers. medical students By using AR eyewear, users will be capable of finding more vital data surrounding patients and procedures while on the go. This, in turn, allows them to learn faster and increase the efficiency of their studies. It’s not only students who are benefitting from the use of AR, however. Experienced surgeons are beginning to include AR overlays into their line of work. (Image: OrthoStreams ) The image above shows us an example of how AR can help to guide student surgeons through complex practices while providing a greater level of accuracy to users. In some cases, AR can even help patients on their way to faster recoveries. For instance, Felix Reges, a nine-year-old boy who suffers from Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome which has caused him to go blind, is an example of somebody who has used . Reges uses a head-on device to augment the objects around him and enhance his visual perception. AR to adapt to his new life The future of AR and healthcare is exciting for many. When the technology is paired with Internet of Things technology, it’s likely that many patient-friendly solutions will help people to better recover from their ailments. Entertainment The gaming industry has been one of the pioneers of augmented reality technology, and played a significant role in making AR more popular and exposed to large audiences. Today, many games have already been . While Pokemon Go has become a flagship game built on augmented reality, other titles like Titans of Space and AR Air Hockey have risen to the fore in recent years. typically offer players digital experiences that are simulated in real-world environments. developed around AR technology AR games Augmented reality is also heavily used by the music industry in various ways to produce, control, mix and visualise music to enrich the production process. In the world of television, AR is growing to become a commonplace presence - especially when it comes to sports broadcasting. Super Bowl 2020 attracted 100 million viewers, and all of them will have seen AR technology hard at work producing graphic overlays onto the sports field and offering seamless facts and stats that would appear as though it’s been painted onto the grass itself. Today, it’s not unusual for sports broadcasts to present team lineups as 3D overlays on top of the field of play. In fact, in their bid to host the 2022 Fifa World Cup, Japan even presented the possibility of to recreate matches in stadiums across the world. broadcasting augmented player holograms Conclusion It’s clear that the applications of augmented reality are having a positive impact in an array of industries all around the world. Although we may still greet the topic of augmentation with visions of Minority Report interactive screens and various other sci-fi renderings, the reality is that AR is already here and we may soon be wearing augmented eyewear everywhere we go. For now, let’s appreciate the impressive strides that augmented reality has been taking in the fields of entertainment and healthcare over recent years. In a world that can be enhanced by a single digital overlay, the future certainly looks bright.

Augmented Convenience: How AR is Being Integrated Into Our Daily Lives

The Future of Marketplaces: Reinventing the $10 Trillion Service Economy

Augmented reality is often presented as something futuristic, but it exists around us for a long time. Augmented reality is a result of combining our world with computing via images, text or videos that are added as overlay to what we see around us. It is an additional slice that has elements visible only with device usage. UX Designers vs Augmented Reality UX Designers use many tools that come with a technology developing. VR was the latest trend in recent years, but augmented reality gives new areas for users to interact with. Creative professionals are bound to stay agile to this ever-evolving augmented reality. User experience will vary depending on how the technology progresses over time. Users will be demanding a lot from app design especially with 360 degrees control and bringing in more depth to augmented objects. Best Methods and Examples of Usage A lot of companies presented great examples already. In the past decade MIT Media Lab`s Fluid Interfaces Group presented SixthSense. This is a device that combines camera, projector, smartphone and mirror. Users have a possibility to manage images via their own fingers. Google Glass was presented in 2013. They look like simple glass, but with image, text, video overlay that can be controlled by voice commands. The most popular Pokemon Go game has “blown” the world with a new gaming way. People do not sit in the same place anymore. They go to the real world in order to catch pokemons and get rewards. How to Design Augmented Reality Correctly Designers think about scenarios first of all. It will allow people to understand how to interact with apps. The next step is how to improve this interaction with elements, that might be transfered into the real world. F.e., woman wants to buy a dress in the shop, so an app with augmented reality can provide a feature of dress preview on woman via mirror or similar scenario. Let`s review all these steps more detailed: Step 1: Learn user and his behavior This is a starting point of any product, especially apps with AR. Designers sort users by age, their expectations and other methods. Very deep analysis is required at the current stage. Researchers play a crucial role at this moment. Based on results from research, designers might predict a set of features that is required for the product. Step 2: Concept At this stage designers think which users' problems can decide a new product. The information about it can be taken from surveys with target audience, social media or any other way suitable for this problem. Also, designers understand that the audience can`t create an idea of visual style, but target audience can help a lot of this direction with their psychology color feelings or expectations. Step 3: Information Architecture and Functionality Major step of building the app is this one. Creatives work on screen connection and interactions in order to create a structure with all required features, that were discovered within the last stage. Also, UI stage is a part of this process too. With help of industry, research and psychology knowledge, designers create style guides and branding to make the app look user-friendly and satisfy users with a visual side. Step 4: Prototype The last stage includes the creation of clickable prototype as a final result before development stage. It also might be tested on the target audience before the programming part and be improved after. Best Apps with Augmented Reality in 2020 Pokemon Go Pokémon Go: the world's first augmented reality app. It is the most popular game that was released on July 16, 2016. This app uses a camera as a way to add augmented reality to the app. The main goal of the game is to find and collect characters from the surrounding world of the user. This was the first game that made people play and use physical activity at the same time. Afterward, the GPS, Accelerometer and the Compass about which direction the phone is pointing towards. Eventually, users engage in a mission to find the right place and the right pokemon. Wikitude Wikitude is a universal AR application that combines object recognition and tracking, simultaneous localization and display (SLAM), primary image recognition and augmented reality of geolocation. Houzz Houzz, the home decor company that combines professional renovation services, design ideas, and furniture shopping into one app includes 3D imaging features of augmented reality. This is a very unique feature. It allows users to place furniture just inside their own place, preview materials on the floor and more! More than 300k+ items can be previewed in the real mode. This feature increased sales and user engagement. Buyers are more confident with their choices with this augmented reality feature. Also, it is a huge step from the previous 2d feature that was similar before. IKEA Place In 2017 IKEA introduced its Place augmented reality app that allowed customers to try out various pieces from Ikea’s seasonal collections in their home, without having to actually set foot inside the store. It also has a placement option which allows users to test several of Ikea’s offerings at the same time in augmented reality, as well as the room sets option which is essentially the same thing but with collections that Ikea has pre-assembled for users. It’s an improvement that promises to make the Ikea experience marginally better, and show new interaction for its users. YouCam Makeup Buying makeup is typically a leap of faith – users might get to try on samples at the counter, but fluorescent lighting plays tricks on the eyes and doesn’t account for typical selfie lighting conditions. makeup But YouCam does, allowing shoppers to test makeup from tons of major brands with AR technology. It includes real-time makeovers, face detection, beauty advisor, and more features. From now, buyers can preview the results on their own faces. This AR improves buyer capability and makes them confident in the result. Summary and Conclusion Technology is supposed to make users' lives dynamic and way more advanced. To sort out our real-time problems, to save hard-earned money and to make the best decisions about the facts of people's life, AR-driven technologies are the next big thing. And the front door of such technology is the AR for designers.

Augmented Reality in Top 5 Apps 2020

AR furniture apps have proved its tremendous impact on business. Have you heard about Houzz AR app used by more than a million users? It made customers 11 times more inclined to buy an item and spend 2.7 more time on navigating it. So how can you create a robust app like this? What problems could you solve with another AR app? Why 3D & AR furniture apps matter 1. They let users preview items in their own place Customers feel safer to buy an expensive or large product if they preview it in their homes, . Augmented reality furniture apps let you do this by virtually placing a furniture piece in your own room. As a result, clients can check whether the item fits exact size or style of a room. With a multi-placement feature you can also try out several products simultaneously and see how they fit together. according to Forrester Research While augmented reality doesn’t give a real sense of quality or textures, it still transmits the size and proportions of an item. Instead of plain photos, users get to view a product in 360° in its real dimensions. This simplifies planning and makes buying process a lot easier. For example, via Wayfair AR furniture app users could visualize the products and proceed straight to the checkout process. 2. 3D & AR furniture apps let you adjust products to users’ preferences Another problem 3D & AR solve in furniture business is personalization. How many clients do you know that are certain about what they want? Usually, they like to compare items of different styles or see them in different colors & materials to perfectly arrange the room. Augmented reality apps enable this without going to a physical store. A 3D configuration feature lets you build up the item exactly how you imagine it. While Houzz, Ikea Place and Roomy are already there, there’s still room for improvement. Will you provide this improvement with your app? 3. They optimize furniture sales process AR app is only half the story. To provide the maximum value, it should be aligned with business strategy and goals. For instance, it might optimize and simplify the sales process to grow revenue. How GFG helps to simplify and boost sales Recently I’ve learned about this using AR, 3D and AI technologies to simplify and boost luxury furniture sales. Their example might be useful for anyone considering AR app development in the nearest future. Usually it takes from 2 days to 2 weeks to place an order in luxury furniture business. A salesperson has to specify materials, size and color of an item, check its price and contact the manufacturer. If a specific product isn’t physically present in-store, users can’t experience it in any way. tech startup GFG Problem to solve: The whole sales process ends up ineffective and needs to be optimised. Not to lose potential buyers and grow sales instead, GFG team created an enhanced online ordering platform. The platform allows to place an order in minutes instead of days. It also lets you show the products in any variations, change colours or materials thanks to configuration feature. Finally, you can present the realistic versions of your products via Augmented reality. That’s the issue GFG aimed to solve. Currently, it’s entering a global luxury furniture market. Among other tech startups it’s going to present its idea at Slush Conference 2019. For rising startups like GFG it’s a great opportunity to meet the global community of investors and grow their brand awareness. If you would like to know more about GFG, you can meet them in-person on 20-21 November in Helsinki, Finland. Conclusion To sum up, the key problems that AR furniture apps can solve are: Show any furniture items realistically, even the ones that are not available; Simplify & speed up the entire sales process; Save time and efforts to customers during their buyer journey; Configure the items in real time to client’s preferences; Drive customers engagement; Boost team productivity and sales. Furniture is still the first type of product customers want to buy with AR, states Centric Digital LLC. This is a chance for any rising tech startup to answer the demand and build a problem-solving AR solution. Knowing the pain points of your target audience, you can start your AR development process like a pro. Ready to begin?

How Can AR Furniture Apps Simplify & Boost Sales: GFG Use Case

Services are ambiguous, and creating an online services marketplace requires finding a fit b/w the service and the marketplace model The landscape of marketplaces for services is littered with failures. There are many a stories of promising startups that failed to create an enduring business. Services, by nature, are ambiguous and their lack of standardization makes it hard to create liquid online marketplaces. Plumbing, for example, isn’t a fixed priced SKU you can buy on Amazon and be 100% sure that it would solve the pipe leak in your house. Services span a whole range complexity, from low complexity services such as food delivery to high complexity services such as home remodeling. There is no “one size fits all” marketplace model that works for all services. However, an understanding of the patterns of what marketplace models are best suited for what kind of services would make it easier to spot opportunities and to avoid failures. My attempt here is to articulate these patterns by defining the 4 categories with a strong service & marketplace-model fit, and a couple that are misfits. Below is a chart that lays out services on complexity vs. frequency of service, and marks the 4 categories where successful marketplaces have been (and and can be) built. Fig: Categories of marketplaces with a Service & Marketplace-model fit Categories of Fits Fit Category 1 — Lead generators for medium/high complexity (medium/low frequency) services Given the ambiguity inherent in service marketplaces, lead generators have been the most obvious and the earliest way to bring services online. As the name suggests, lead generators are not involved in the transaction and make money simply on surfacing (or establishing connection) between the consumer and the lead. The prime example of a marketplace in this category is , which is a lead generator for services across all complexities and across all frequencies. However, I suspect a big part of Thumbtack’s revenue comes from medium and high complexity services such as event photography compared to low complexity services such as home cleaning. Thumbtack Lead generators could take a share of the market in any complexity level but typically, the value of the lead (and the trust the marketplace creates behind that lead) increases in proportion to the complexity of the service. There is no reason for one to use lead generators for procuring low complexity services when there might be specialized marketplaces, offering a much better consumer experience (Fit Category 2) for procuring those services. A good example of a successful lead generation model in a specific domain (everything home related), but cutting across medium and high complexity services, is . It builds trust for the leads by showing detailed photos of their past projects, Houzz badges and awards, affiliations, reviews, etc. Arguably, Houzz has taken away some of Thumbtack’s market in home services but Thumbtack’s staying power comes from the trust and brand awareness it has engendered because of its breadth of services. is another good example in the wedding domain. Houzz Zola Fit Category 2 —On-demand transaction marketplace for low complexity (high frequency) services This category encompasses specialized marketplaces focused on low complexity (high frequency) services such as food delivery, ride hailing and grocery delivery. Prominent examples are DoorDash, Lyft, Uber Eats, Instacart, etc. These marketplaces go beyond lead generation, and into transactions, and they owe their liquidity to the demand that is generated (and maintained) on the promise of a much better consumer experience for buying services compared to lead generation marketplaces. In that sense, they deepen the market and create more liquidity than there would have been otherwise. However, given the low complexity (and the commoditized nature) of the services being provided by supply side, trust mechanisms in these marketplaces are less important, and marketplaces in this category have a hard time preventing supply-side multi-tenanting with direct and indirect competitors. Supply-side keeps on switching across marketplaces and jobs (same person could do grocery delivery today with Instacart and ride hailing tomorrow with Uber), and this leads to very tough unit economics. Andrew Chen has a about it. Such marketplaces will continue to exist, though there will likely be consolidation that combines multiple low complexity and high frequency services into one marketplace. good post Fit Category 3 — Managed transaction marketplace for medium complexity (medium frequency) services This category is relatively underdeveloped, with and being good examples in home services, and and being good examples in wellness. The services offered by these marketplaces sit in the sweet spot of being that supply-side is not constantly churning (and multi-tenanting) and that the buying experience can’t be standardized into a few clicks. This enables these marketplaces to offer a consumer experience 10x of what the lead generators could provide, thereby capturing sustainable demand. Puls Setter Soothe Glamsquad complex enough not complex enough These transaction marketplaces have a high degree of “managed” component. Puls, for example, vets its technicians and provides a 90-day guarantee on its services. Its buying experience is also very much tailored to each service with as much clarity on pricing as reasonably possible. Setter, on the other hand, introduces a trusted home manager into the mix to instantly help find the right provider. More specialized marketplaces, on the lines of Glamsquad and Soothe, might emerge in this category as more service buying continues to move online, and more segments of services (e.g. dog training — just a random guess) become large enough to justify specialized marketplaces. Fit Category 4 — Managed transaction marketplace for high complexity (low frequency) services This category is also underdeveloped, with being the best example of being successful in the desk-work space. Note that some of Upwork’s services might better fit Category 3 above. The marketplaces in this category are what James Currier called . The focus for the marketplaces here is to bring as much of the offline negotiation involved in a complex transaction online, into an interface managed by the marketplace. The power of these marketplaces comes from a few aspects (not all might be present in one marketplace): a) vetting of suppliers b) SaaS tools to work with these suppliers (before and after one has hired them) and c) guarantee when things go wrong. Upwork Market Networks is an evolving example of such a marketplace for home projects in the consumer space. is an evolving example for office projects in the B2B space for some of its services. It should be noted that the consumer experience marketplaces in this category need to create is very different from the experience that marketplaces in the Category 3 above create. Therefore, it’s very hard for a single transaction marketplace to effectively span across the Categories 3 and 4. BuildZoom Managed by Q : As consumer expectations are evolving towards expecting lower and lower friction, marketplaces in Category 3 and 4 would pose a threat to lead generators (Category 1). That, in my view, is the reason Thumbtack went through all to change its matching approach to be more instant and effective. Note the pain The Misfits (or Loose fits) While it’s interesting to understand the categories of fits, to appreciate the nuances of service marketplaces, it’s also important to recognize the misfits. Below are 2: Misfit Category A— Lead generators for low complexity (medium/low frequency) services Prominent example of a marketplace in this category is . With its positioning as “get affordable help”, TaskRabbit cornered itself into mostly being an option only for low complexity (medium frequency) services that one wouldn’t be able to find elsewhere at a better price e.g. home cleaning, or low complexity (low frequency) services that one wouldn’t be able to find elsewhere at all e.g. standing in a queue for a ticket. To be clear, TaskRabbit is not a failure in absolute sense, but it turned out to be much more of a niche player than it seemed at one point of time because it did not do what was needed to build trust in buying medium complexity services. TaskRabbit Misfit Category B— On-Demand transaction marketplace for low complexity (medium frequency) services Prominent example of a marketplace in this category is . Its mainstay is home cleaning, which not only is medium frequency, but also suffers from the same supply-side churn we had talked about in Fit Category 2. The medium frequency and low complexity aspects of home cleaning makes it really hard to retain supply, and unfortunately for Handy, there also isn’t any silver bullet to providing consumers a 10x experience when buying cleaning from Handy as opposed to buying it from a cheaper lead generator such as TaskRabbit. This is unlike other low complexity services such as food delivery or ride hailing, where the high frequency and on-demand nature of services at least creates an opportunity for the transaction marketplaces to offer a 10x consumer experience compared to what a lead generator could provide. Handy Obviously, service marketplaces are hard, and I have been wrecking my brain to understand what leads to the varied outcomes. Hope the categorization of fits and misfits above resonates with you, and it provides a framework for evaluating opportunities and avoiding pitfalls. Please share any feedback. Follow me on Twitter @setparth

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