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As mentioned in the previous assignment, out AR project helps users visualize architectural elements in their interior spaces before they commit to design choices. The app focuses on renter-friendly solutions like archways, partitions, dividers, mouldings, wainscoting, windows, and curtains. Our goal is to make interior upgrades fun, easy, and non-damaging.
This means our AR project focuses on vertical surfaces rather than horizontal ones. Since Vuforia mainly detects horizontal planes, it's not suitable for our needs. That's why Mr Razif recommended us to use AR Foundation instead.
**Edit 04/07:
why is almost all tutorials outdated and is not compatible with Unity 6
UI Icons:
For our UI, we had to start building assets early because there’s a lot of visual work involved, especially with our niche design style. As a design student, I believe aesthetics play a huge role in shaping user experience. I took charge of creating the logos. I sketched them in Procreate and made two color versions - one with a darker tone to help the gradient effect stand out. I avoided using noise textures because they didn’t give the look we wanted. Then I brought the designs into Adobe Illustrator to apply the gradient effect and added collage-style sticker outlines to match our intended aesthetic.
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| Fig 1.0 | Two color tones of my logo created as a base for the grainy-gradient effect. |
As you can see, I decided to include our mascot to make it feel more personal, of course using the color scheme we proposed. The bunny represents Natania, and the rat represents me.
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| DIY Enthusiasts Icon |
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| Design Student Icon |
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| Renter Icon |
Below are the icons I made for the AR scene navigation bar, so users unfamiliar with the elements can recognize them at a glance.
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| Architectural Elements Icon |
We also created our 3D assets, and since we couldn’t include every architectural element, we decided to focus on six: archways, partitions, dividers, mouldings, wainscoting, and windows. Below are the assets I made. We tried to create an equal number of models for each element.
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| My Blender Assets (for now) |
What I have done:
The first thing I worked on was the onboarding page. I basically transferred what we designed in Figma into Unity. But I noticed that if I added the whole image as it was, it looked pixelated. So I ended up separating all the elements instead.
One of the most frustrating parts was the buttons. Since our buttons have more rounded edges and Unity doesn’t really support that by default, I didn’t want to create multiple assets just for them. I decided to look for a more efficient way and found this YouTube tutorial that helped:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO4jnaxvMjk
Natania helped me find sound effects to make the experience feel more immersive and I would implement it on the areas that are done.
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Fig 2.0 | Sound effects Building
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I also worked on the Tutorial section. This is for users who don’t know where to start - they can check out our page for links to tutorials (from YouTube, Instagram, or even TikTok) on how to create faux architectural elements. It’s mainly for DIYers and renters who want to personalize their space without damaging the property. For the prototype, I’ve included three videos so far, but I plan to add more over time to make it feel like a real app. I’m also planning to tweak the layout since it looks a bit boring at the moment.
Things yet to be completed / implemented:
- Finishing the Catalog pages
- Finishing the Saved Feature
- Combined my Unity project with Natania's
- Add sound effects to missing buttons
Video Walkthrough:
Reflection:
Honestly, compared to the workload of Game Development last semester, I think this was a bit too easy-- maybe because I was already exposed to Unity and had some understanding of how it works (or maybe because I’m sharing the workload with a teammate). Either way, it felt bearable.
The most challenging part was working with AR. I honestly didn’t know where to start when it came to spawning objects into the space and placing them vertically. Our app really depends on testing, but since we didn’t have a MacBook or an Android phone, we couldn’t check if anything actually worked. (I’m not sure if AR Foundation even has an emulator.) That held us back a lot. We tried to make up for it by finishing the assets - but honestly, that didn’t fully compensate.
Another challenge was combining our work into one file. Somewhere along the way, we ended up downloading older Unity versions because the AR Foundation scripts were outdated and not compatible with Unity 6. So we had to go back to Unity 2021, which will probably be a hassle for us later on. TT
That said, what we submitted isn’t the final version. I believe we can do better. I’d say we’re about 30% done - it’s just a matter of replicating and refining now. We definitely need to work on improving the user experience.
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