Prototyping User Interfaces for Mobile Augmented Reality Applications

Abstract

This paper presents a case study of the development and evaluation of user interfaces for mobile augmented reality applications. Two augmented reality applications were developed for Apple iPad using Unity and Apple’s ARKit software. The applications were developed to demonstrate augmented reality capabilities on mobile devices to students, industry, and potential sponsors. During development and evaluation of the demonstration applications, world-anchored floating 3D text for presentation of information was often off-screen and difficult to read. Pairing 2D screen-anchored text with 3D augmented reality objects improved readability but at the cost of reduced immersion.