Whoever said print was dying clearly haven’t seen the innovative new way that Ikea has got Android and iOS users interacting with the company’s print catalog.
There’s a wealth of ways you can use the app, including finding out whether or not a piece of furniture will fit in the room — a problem we can all relate to.
When scanning certain pages of Ikea’s 2014 catalog you’ll see a plethora of options which can range from a simple link to learn more to a full 360 view of how the room could look. The most ingenious feature though is the way it uses AR to virtually place the piece of furniture in your room.
Whilst we’ve seen AR used in similar ways before, it’s nice to see a retailer as large as Ikea adopting the latest technologies. The way the Ikea app works is you place the catalog on the floor so it can get an idea of scale, and you simply scan it with your phone and poof — the chair, sofa or bed will appear right there on your phone screen.
We couldn’t test out the AR features ourselves, partially because you need to have a physical catalog and the fact that the 2014 calendar hasn’t launched in the UK yet, although we were able to check out some other features. Using two phone screens we were able to try it out with the US catalog and we have to say we’re impressed. We were able to explore a model room just by looking around with the phone camera — and it was really smooth too!
Not all pages have scanning ability, so some of them you’re going to have to endure as normal pages — but it’s definitely a step in the right direction.
The app is currently available for Android and iOS users, although the catalog is set to launch on August 15.
Source: Digital Spy, IKEA