Interview about Augmented Reality Interior Design AR Application, winner of the A' Interface, Interaction and User Experience Design Award 2025
Remodeling a home can be overwhelming, especially when visualizing materials like tiles and paint in an existing space. Traditional 3D CAD often limits the design experience to tiny 2D screens. Arid creates an immersive experience, allowing users to seamlessly blend virtual designs with the real world through AR/VR headsets. In just minutes, users can customize existing walls, explore materials, and arrange virtual furniture, all using intuitive hand gestures, fully integrated with the space.
View detailed images, specifications, and award details on A' Design Award & Competition website.
View Design DetailsWith a background in architecture, I’ve seen firsthand how challenging it is for people to make material decisions during the remodeling process. Many clients struggle to visualize the final outcome—whether it’s choosing paint colors, tiles, or other surface finishes. The traditional process often relies heavily on imagination or small material samples that don’t convey the full spatial effect.Initially, I was frustrated by how limited existing tools were, especially traditional VR headsets that only offer a one-way immersive experience, isolating users from their real-world environment. However, with the emergence of devices like the Oculus Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro, I saw a major shift—these tools now support blending virtual elements into the real world through passthrough AR.That’s when the idea for ARID started to take shape. I thought: what if we could build a system that allows people to apply virtual materials directly onto their existing walls and see the result in real time? Instead of relying solely on imagination, users could evaluate multiple design options in their actual space, leading to more confident and informed decisions.
While we did not explicitly simulate how different materials respond to natural lighting conditions through advanced rendering techniques, we found that spatial openness and visual continuity played a critical role in shaping users’ perception of light. One key feature in ARID is the see-through wall toggle, which allows users to virtually “cut open” walls—such as bathroom partitions—and reveal external openings like windows.When users enable this feature and align it with real-world window positions, natural light from the actual environment blends with the AR overlay. This means users can experience different lighting atmospheres depending on the time of day and sun orientation, even without manually adjusting any lighting parameters in the system. The resulting effect provides a dynamic and context-aware experience, helping users intuitively sense how the space would feel with different levels of natural exposure.In essence, rather than directly simulating light-material interaction, we enabled a design interaction that lets natural light become part of the AR experience—making it a subtle yet powerful tool for visualizing atmosphere and spatial quality.
Interestingly, precise room measurement and tile calculation were not the most challenging aspects of developing the ARID application. These functions were clearly defined from the start, and we had the tools and methods to achieve them accurately. What proved far more difficult—and crucial—was designing an intuitive user interface that allows users to naturally interact with the system, especially when selecting and applying materials to walls.In most traditional digital products, UI design is constrained to small screens, such as smartphones or tablets. Designers must carefully arrange all the information and icons within a 10-inch display. However, in the VR/AR environment, the concept of UI shifts dramatically. The entire surrounding space becomes part of the interface, and this opens up both opportunities and new complexities.In ARID, we wanted users to feel truly immersed in the space, blending physical and virtual environments. To support this, we avoided using traditional floating windows or flat menus. Instead, we attached the material selection UI to the user’s left hand, allowing them to use tap gestures with the right hand to intuitively browse and apply materials. This interaction simulates the feeling of holding a physical material sample in your hand and directly applying it to a surface—just like how people evaluate tiles or paint in real life.
To inform the design of our gesture control system, we conducted three experiments where participants were asked to design the same physical bathroom using different methods:(1) holding physical tiles and paint swatches on-site,(2) using a traditional 3D CAD tool to assign materials remotely, and(3) using the ARID system to apply virtual materials in real space via AR.We found that physically holding materials allowed users to compare two or more options simultaneously by placing them side-by-side against the wall—an intuitive behavior that's difficult to replicate with conventional interfaces. This insight led us to design ARID’s interface around hand gestures, where the left hand acts as a material palette and the right hand applies materials with a tap gesture, simulating real-world actions.Hand tracking offered a more natural and immersive experience than controllers, especially on devices like Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro. Through iterative testing, we refined gesture recognition and feedback to support a more intuitive and spatial design process.
ARID advances the field of interior design technology by bridging the gap between imagination and reality. Traditional design tools—especially CAD—often require users to interpret simulations on a 2D screen. In contrast, ARID enables users to visualize material choices directly on physical surfaces in their real environment, significantly reducing guesswork and miscommunication. By combining AR overlays with embodied interaction, ARID allows users to “test out” different materials using intuitive hand gestures—simulating the experience of holding real samples and placing them against a wall. Uniquely, ARID provides a way to see the final visual outcome at a very early stage of the remodeling process, which is not possible with most existing tools. This mirrors natural decision-making behavior and makes the design process more inclusive, interactive, and immediate. ARID also challenges the conventional boundaries of design software, which typically separate the digital model from the physical space. Our system redefines the relationship between user, space, and material—turning the design process into a spatial, lived experience. This not only benefits homeowners and clients, but also empowers professionals to communicate ideas more effectively and collaboratively. Through this hybrid of physical and virtual interaction, ARID contributes to a more human-centered, intuitive, and context-aware future for interior design technology.
Achieving precise integration between virtual elements and physical spaces was one of the key challenges in developing ARID. We utilized tools provided by the Meta Quest platform to understand room geometry and create spatial anchors that correspond to real-world surfaces such as walls, ceilings, and floors.Based on these anchors, we generate meshes that align with the physical environment. When users select a surface, the corresponding virtual material is applied directly to that mesh—creating a stable and realistic preview of the design outcome.Rather than manually placing every element, users can simply move through the space while the system detects and anchors surfaces in the background. We focused on making this process seamless, with minimal setup and maximum spatial accuracy.While the technical foundation leverages Meta’s spatial tools, the core innovation lies in how ARID translates this into an interactive and intuitive user experience—allowing materials to be tested and visualized directly in the user’s own environment, even during the early stages of remodeling.
ARID is an ongoing project, and the bathroom remodeling tool represents only the first blueprint for a broader, scalable system. Our long-term vision is to expand its capabilities to support a variety of interior environments, including kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms, and beyond. Each space presents unique design challenges, and we plan to develop modular interaction tools tailored to fit different scenarios.Looking ahead, one of our key goals is to integrate ARID with home improvement retail platforms, such as Home Depot or similar providers. To support this, we are working on adding cost estimation features—allowing users to receive approximate pricing and material quantity calculations based on the surfaces they modify and the materials they select. This would make ARID not only a design tool but also a practical resource for budgeting and purchasing decisions.In future phases, we also aim to support more complex spatial editing, such as modifying wall dimensions or reconfiguring layout elements, further enhancing ARID’s value as an immersive and actionable interior design platform.
In many ways, the development of ARID felt like a kind of creative magic. We began by clearly defining our goals and maintained a consistent rhythm of weekly meetings to track progress, solve problems, and adapt as needed. This steady, iterative process was key to moving quickly without losing focus.One of the biggest lessons was the importance of continuous learning. We made full use of online resources, community knowledge, and open-source tools to accelerate development. In today’s digital environment, there is a wealth of information available—you just have to stay curious and keep going.Ultimately, rapid innovation isn’t about rushing; it’s about setting clear goals, staying committed, and being willing to learn and adapt at every step. If you move forward with intention and persistence, the destination will become clear.
In ARID, achieving a balance between technical accuracy and intuitive user experience was especially important when designing the furniture and material interfaces. Material rendering is not just about color or brightness—it’s fundamentally tied to real-world dimensions and spatial alignment.When the system begins, ARID scans the physical environment to generate a precise 3D model of the space, including accurate wall, floor, and ceiling measurements. For example, if a scanned wall is 280 x 280 cm and the selected tile is 30 x 30 cm, the system automatically calculates the correct number of tile repetitions along the UV axes to ensure that the material is applied seamlessly and proportionally. This prevents visual distortion and guarantees that what users see matches the real-world scale.We also implemented a tile rotation feature, which uses mathematical adjustments to maintain pattern integrity when rotated in 90-degree increments, avoiding stretching or misalignment.Furniture components such as toilets, sinks, and bathtubs are pre-scaled to match real-life dimensions. To further enhance spatial realism, we added collision feedback—so when users place objects like a bathtub, they receive subtle visual or haptic cues, simulating how it would behave in a physical room.
Looking ahead, one of our top priorities is to integrate ARID with home improvement retail systems, allowing users to calculate material costs and directly order supplies within the app. This would turn ARID from a visualization tool into a fully actionable platform—streamlining the renovation process from design to execution by combining AR-based previews with real-time pricing and logistics.In parallel, we are working toward AI-powered material and layout suggestions. By analyzing user preferences, space types, and budget constraints, the system could recommend compatible tiles, color palettes, or surface combinations—empowering users to make confident design decisions with minimal effort.Another major opportunity is enabling real-time multi-user collaboration, where homeowners, designers, and contractors can interact in the same AR environment—either remotely or on-site. This would significantly improve communication and reduce misunderstandings during the renovation process.Lastly, we see value in enhancing real-time lighting simulation, allowing users to preview how materials will appear under different lighting conditions or times of day. While this is technically demanding, it offers tremendous potential to improve realism and user confidence.
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