AR App Design Services

Design the path from a product catalogue to a 3D model standing in someone's room — finding it, allowing the camera, placing it, checking its size and sharing the result — so AR feels like part of the app, not a separate demo.

A steel robotic arm clamped to a small white table holds up a phone over a ceramic armchair, an orange marker floating on a glass layer above it.
Custom scope
Set in the service’s proposal
Tried on real phones
Real rooms, real light
Your 3D models stay
Designed around your pipeline
Build-ready handoff
Flows, states and device prototype

In short

From a catalogue to a model in the room, with the camera, the space and the scale handled.

What's included

  • Catalogue and model discovery
  • Model selection
  • Camera permission
  • Placement on surfaces
  • Scale people can trust
  • Capture and share

Answers you'll have before development

  • Where should AR appear in the app?
  • What happens when the camera is refused?
  • How does someone trust the size they see?

Where it stops

Mobile App Design

The whole app: navigation, onboarding and platform patterns.

AR App Design

The camera moment: finding a model, placing it and trusting its size.

Not included

  • 3D modelling, VR, games or digital twins
  • Conversion or return-rate figures

The AR moment, designed as part of the app

Most AR features fail before the model appears: people cannot find the button, refuse the camera or give up looking for a floor. The design covers the whole path, not only the view through the lens.

Discuss your product
  • A ceramic phone showing an armchair card, the same armchair standing in front of it on a steel ring, a steel arc joining the two.

    Catalogue-to-AR journey

    From browsing to seeing it in the room, and back to the product page.

  • A ceramic phone showing a camera-access dialog with two buttons, one in graphite, a lens cap beside it.

    Camera and permission flows

    The ask, the refusal, the retry and a useful fallback without the camera.

  • A ceramic armchair on a gridded floor plate inside a steel rotation ring, a steel ruler with graphite end caps along the edge.

    Placement, scale and gestures

    Finding a surface, placing, moving, rotating, and a size people believe.

  • Three armchair models on a steel rail, from a steel wireframe to half built to solid ceramic, a graphite loading ring in front.

    3D states and handoff

    Loading models, poor light, lost tracking and older phones, specified for engineering.

You receive

  • The journey and its flows
  • A state and permission matrix
  • UI and a device prototype
  • Walkthroughs with your engineers

Designed for a real room, not a demo video.

AR meets dim lamps, cluttered floors, refused cameras and older phones. Every screen is drawn for the moment the camera does not behave, and for the person who never opens it.

Every screen is designed for

  • First time in AR
  • Camera access refused
  • No surface found
  • Tracking lost in poor light
  • Model still loading
  • Phone without AR support
  • Too big for the room
  • Offline, model not saved
  • Screen readers and larger text

When AR app design is the right frame

It fits when seeing a product in place, at its real size, helps someone decide.

  • Size and fit cause doubt

    People hesitate or return products because they cannot picture them at home.

  • 3D models exist, or will

    Your catalogue has models, or a plan to produce them.

  • The phone is the channel

    Your customers already browse on iOS or Android.

  • A build is planned

    Your team or partner will develop the AR features.

Let's put your product in their room

Tell us what people should see in AR and where in the app it belongs. We will come back with the service that fits and a realistic next step.

Scope, access and who does what

AR work runs as one of our services, usually inside the design of a mobile app. Its proposal sets the terms.

Scope
Per service fixed or phased, set in the proposal
Timeline
Agreed after scope, access and dependencies
  1. You provide

    The app
    Access to the current app or a test build, and the catalogue AR should sit in.
    3D models
    A few real models with their sizes, file formats and loading times.
    Evidence
    Where buyers hesitate, return reasons, reviews and the devices they use.
    Engineering
    The AR framework, the 3D pipeline, the target phones and what can change.
  2. Who does what

    ANODA
    Maps the journey around AR, designs the camera, placement and scale flows, the states and screens, and tries them on real devices.
    Your team
    Provides the models and the catalogue, reviews each step, builds the AR features and releases the app.
  3. Boundaries

    Outside AR app design
    3D modelling and scanning, VR, games, simulation engines, digital twins, AR development and store release.
    After the design
    Your team or partner builds and releases the app. Implementation reviews are scoped separately when needed.

In the client's words

Our product had become outdated, and we knew it needed a substantial rethink. ANODA started with a thorough UX audit that helped us understand where users were struggling, which parts of the experience needed the most attention, and what to prioritise. They then turned those findings into a redesign that felt like a huge step forward—modern, intuitive and visually polished. We appreciated how they challenged what wasn’t working while respecting the technical constraints of the existing product. The transformation went well beyond appearance; it gave us a clearer, more cohesive product and a direction we were excited to move forward with.

Anika Chirawawala Forever Beauty Read the Forever Beauty case

What should people see in their space?

Tell us about the catalogue, the 3D models you have, and where buyers hesitate today.

What do you need? *
Project budget (USD) *

What is your product, who uses it, and what would you like us to do?

    Within 15 minutes, we’ll reply with initial feedback and follow-up questions.

    Read more about AR and new interfaces

    All articles

    AR App Design: common questions

    How can we tell if a team's AR app design holds up on a real phone, in a real room?

    Look for AR app design services that show the whole path, not a single camera screen: how people find the AR entry point, what happens when they refuse the camera, how a surface is found, and how a model is placed, moved and sized. Ask to see those states in a live app, and which parts the team designed itself. Ask, too, how placement and scale were tried on real phones in real rooms, not only in a design tool. Our Forever Beauty case shows a live AI and AR app redesigned screen by screen.

    Which screens besides the camera view need designing for AR, and what adds to the effort?

    The journey from catalogue to AR and back, the camera and permission flows, placement, scale and gestures, the states for loading, poor light and lost tracking, the UI, and a prototype tried on real phones. Cost and timeline depend on how many products and model types are in scope, whether both iOS and Android need their own patterns, how the 3D models behave, and how much of the app around AR is designed too. They are set in the proposal for the service you start with.

    Who is augmented reality UX design really for, and which steps does it cover?

    Mostly one role — the shopper or user on a phone — through several jobs: browsing a catalogue, choosing a model and its variant, allowing the camera, finding a surface, placing, moving and rotating the model, checking its size, capturing and sharing it, and returning to buy or save. Where a team manages the catalogue, we also design the tool that publishes models and their details. A salesperson showing a model to a customer in a showroom is another case worth designing for: one phone, two people looking at it.

    Should our AR feature start with mobile app design, discovery or testing?

    Mobile App Design covers the app around AR and the AR moment itself, and Mobile App Development builds and releases it. UI/UX & Product Design fits when AR is one part of a wider product, and Web App Design when models and content are managed in a browser. Product Discovery or Usability Testing come first when it is unclear whether AR will help.

    How do you handle camera permissions, tracking problems and other edge cases?

    With the flow, not after it. The camera is asked for at the moment it is needed, with a reason; a refusal leads to a useful fallback — photos, 3D view, dimensions — and a clear way to retry. Every screen is drawn for no surface found, tracking lost in poor light, a model still loading, a phone without AR support, a model too big for the room and no connection. Measurements appear in the units the buyer uses, with the model's real dimensions one tap away. Engineering gets all of this as a state and permission matrix.

    What should we send you before you start — test builds, 3D models, data?

    Access to the app or a test build, the catalogue AR should sit in, a few real 3D models with their sizes and formats, what you know about where buyers hesitate — return reasons, reviews, analytics — the devices your customers use, and contact with the engineers who own the AR framework and the 3D pipeline.

    What AR work can you show?

    Forever Beauty, a live AI and AR skincare and makeup app we redesigned — a screen-by-screen audit, a new information architecture, the face scan and beauty report, AR makeup steps that show where each product goes, and a refreshed interface, all delivered on the backend that was already running. Its AR works on the face rather than in a room, so it shows how we handle the camera, permission and trust in a result, while placing products in a room is work we would do on your project. The case study shows the screens and the reasoning behind them.

    AR is going into an app we already have. Will it feel like part of that app?

    Yes. AR usually joins an app people already use, so the design follows its navigation and components rather than starting a second style. We draw in your files and system, test with the engineers who own the AR framework, and hand over everything we make. If your 3D models come from a supplier or a separate pipeline, we note the size, detail and loading limits the design depends on, so models and screens fit each other.