As a User Experience Design graduate from a non-design background, I focus on user research and need discovery. I care about usability and social impact, and I’m aiming to grow into a product manager role.
As a User Experience Design graduate from a non-design background, I focus on user research and need discovery. I care about usability and social impact, and I’m aiming to grow into a product manager role.
The inability to touch products when shopping online makes it hard for consumers to judge how they feel. This study examines whether gesture-based AR, compared with tap-based interaction, helps shoppers better imagine the tactile feel of a product and judge it with greater confidence. The goal is to inform AR interaction design for e-commerce and provide practical design guidelines.
RQ1: In AR, compared with tap-based interaction, does gesture-based interaction increase the vividness of haptic imagery?
RQ2: In AR, compared with tap-based interaction, does gesture-based interaction increase confidence in haptic evaluation?
Design Thinking method (https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/what-is-design-thinking-and-why-is-it-so-popular) is used as a reference for prototype development.
During the empathize and define phases, I used the existing literature to specify the gesture-based AR interaction for this study and compared it with a tap-based (finger-on-screen) interaction.
I used sticky notes, a smartphone, and simple props to test the feasibility of my ideas during the ideation phase.
I developed a simple AR application on the ZapWorks platform. Based on feedback from the lo-fi prototype test, I created three versions and compared them to determine which performed best.
Based on feedback from the earlier tests, I revised the prototype’s content—reducing on-screen text, adding video content, and introducing interaction prompts. I then built a more refined AR application on the ZapWorks platform.
I recruited 16 participants on campus.
Quantitative: After each prototype, participants completed Likert-scale measures of vividness of haptic imagery and confidence in haptic evaluation. I analyzed these data in SPSS.
Qualitative: I conducted brief interviews to capture users’ experiences and analyzed the transcripts using thematic analysis.
The study found that gesture-based AR interaction enables users to better imagine a product’s tactile qualities and to judge them with greater confidence; it may also increase consumers’ purchase intention to some extent.
Online shopping: Add AR that lets people move their hand to press or stroke the item on the page. It helps them see how it might feel (softness, texture) and buy with more confidence.
For sellers: Showing hands touching the product helps shoppers reduce hesitation, and improve add-to-cart rates and satisfaction.
Platforms & stores: This AR can be used in live streams, shopping apps/mini-apps, and in-store screens or self-service kiosks, giving people a sense of the feel when they can’t touch the product.
The two AR prototype interactions can be viewed in the videos.