Best Practices for Successful Mixed Reality Adoption

We can say that technology never sleeps or that humans never rest. Whichever way you look at it, innovations are constant. In accordance with the advent of the most transformational technologies of the past decade, mixed reality is seemingly a game-changer.

Mixed reality comprises augmented reality and virtual reality but in a real-world setting. It is different from VR in the sense that holograms are overlaid onto what we see in the real world directly into the wearer’s field of vision.

The wearer can use hand gestures and voice to interact with the holograms. It is also different from mobile or tablet-based AR wherein you do not have to point the camera and see the projection on a screen.

Why Mixed Reality Adoption Is the Key to Future Business Success

Out of the entire XR landscape, mixed reality is unique because of the way it is experienced. It is the stuff of movies, what we saw in popular titles like Star Trek and Minority Report, where humans interact with digital holograms. It gives human-computer interaction a whole new meaning.

The biggest reason to adopt mixed reality for innovation comes in the form of two-dimensional versus three-dimensional. Everything that we see, feel and experience is in 3D. But the wealth of information that we have is in 2D, stored on pages, or seen on screens. This creates a gap between information and action.

The technology will see further adoption in enterprises with applications that improve the productivity of employees, help with better training, and aid in customer service.

Despite the glaring potential of MR, there are numerous barriers that are limiting its growth. The primary reason is a lack of clarity on the adoption approach. Companies need to prepare a roadmap that considers numerous factors from cost to scalability, and most importantly ROI.

Strategic Approach to Boost Adoption

A definite strategy can boost MR adoption, helping companies to realize its potential. Here are some of the best practices to ensure that your organization adopts mixed reality for all the right reasons in the most ideal way.

1. Devising and Designing the MR Application

• Ask “why mixed reality?” for whatever process or operation that you choose and think spatially.
• Consider physical and psychological factors such as: Where will the app be used? What space will the personnel operate in? How much movement will be needed?
• While onboarding and initializing, mention what they will be able to do with the application and which holograms or tabs they will be able to interact with.
• Plan for object interaction. Decide what gestures, voice controls, and movements are possible with the MR app.
• Balance the user interface and do not clutter the field of view. You are not replicating a computer screen and will mostly not need everything that would be given in a 2D application.

2. Leveraging Historical Knowledge Base

• The previous generation of engineers did not have laptops or mobile phones and was used to leveraging their memory and analytical skills and thus remembered the entire procedure. Hence, the leadership was dependent on them and had to retain them to make sure the knowledge would not be lost.
• With mixed reality, you are less dependent on humans in this aspect since you can capture all procedures in the MR app and build the knowledge base in the cloud, helping future operators with seamless learning.

3. Solution Scalability From PoC or Working Prototype to MVP

• Develop a proof-of-concept to ascertain the effectiveness of the solution.
• Gather information on how it is helping the end users and what can be improved to move to a working prototype.
• Ensure that the working prototype is scalable by checking the following:

1. Does it work well with an increased user base?
2. What is the cloud consumption?
3. Does the solution need more devices?

4. Conduct User Training and Awareness Sessions

• Conduct training and spread awareness across the organization or customer business as the user experience (UX) would be different from existing systems with gestures, voice commands, and interactions.
• Familiarize the end-users as the data presentation is different for an MR app as compared to mobile or tablet applications.

5. ROI Against TCO

• See how much money you are losing in terms of efficiency and cost without mixed reality and then what the cost of ownership is regarding its use and operations.
• Loading the MR models at the job site and letting the team use them unearths opportunities to change the design and installation plan for the better. They will be able to identify the clashes between components and infrastructure faster.
• Without such an MR approach, the company wouldn’t be able to find the faults until the actual installation is carried out, significantly increasing the cost of going back and forth. This is one of the key places where ROI becomes evident.

The First-Mover Advantage Is up for Grabs

Staying relevant has always been important but it holds up now even more. With the way the world has been changing and the way in which technology is progressing, there is no better time to act than now.

Companies that are, at the least willing to test the waters now, will be ready for what is coming next – a massive technological revolution and a major digital shift with emerging technologies like mixed reality and smart connectivity.