Enterprises are embracing immersive reality solutions. Whether it's the creation of 3D assets for e-commerce, developing augmented reality (AR) apps, or crafting virtual reality (VR) experiences for trade shows, immersive technology is the next frontier. But how this happens is usually chaotic. With multiple divisions and individuals spearheading different projects, the lack of synergy often leads to disjointed efforts, repeated work, and escalating technical debt.
How can you avoid these pitfalls? The answer lies in “enabling centralization”.
From what we’ve seen with clients we work with there are four primary problems with a highly decentralized innovation anarchistic approach to getting into immersive reality…
1. Inefficiency:
When multiple teams work in silos on similar immersive projects, there's a high likelihood of duplicate efforts. For instance, two departments might spend resources modeling the same 3D asset, wasting time and money.
2. Inconsistent Quality:
Without a standard for quality, the immersive experiences created can differ vastly in terms of visuals, usability, and interactivity. This inconsistency can impact brand image and user experience.
3. Technical Debt Accumulation:
Different teams may choose varied platforms, tools, or standards. As technology advances – and it is advancing quickly – integrating or updating these disparate solutions can become a major challenge, leading to increased technical debt.
4. Inadequate Knowledge Sharing:
Disjointed efforts mean that the learnings from one project may not be transferred to another. This lack of knowledge sharing can lead to repeated mistakes and missed opportunities for innovation.
1. Establish a Central Hub:
Create a dedicated agency (we do this!) and/or a person/department responsible for all immersive reality initiatives. This hub acts as the single point of contact to avoid the aforementioned pitfalls.
2. Standardize Processes and Tools:
Choose a common set of tools and platforms for immersive reality projects. This ensures uniformity, reduces the learning curve for teams, and makes maintenance and updates more manageable. Like, Unity or Unreal??
3. Foster Collaboration:
We encourage different teams to collaborate by creating cross-functional project groups, organizing regular knowledge-sharing sessions, and maintaining a repository of assets, codes, and best practices.
4. Continuous Training:
The world of immersive reality is ever-evolving. It’s important that all team members are up-to-date with the latest trends, tools, and techniques through regular training sessions and workshops.
5. Implement Quality Checks:
To maintain consistency in user experiences, set up quality assurance processes. This is not ‘police’ but rather a process for improvement. This could include peer reviews, user testing, and feedback loops to refine the immersive content. The point of this is also to foster collaboration and training across groups.
6. Prioritize Scalability:
Instead of one-off projects, think of building scalable solutions. This is not only about technology scalability, but the sequence to which things are built. This ensures that assets, applications, or experiences can be repurposed or expanded upon in future projects, maximizing ROI.
7. Invest in Research and Development:
The immersive reality space is ripe for innovation. A portion of the central hub's resources should be dedicated to exploring new tools, techniques, and use-cases to stay ahead of the curve.
While the promise of immersive reality is immense, enterprises can only harness its full potential by adopting a coordinated approach. By teaming up with an expert agency and/or creating a group internally, businesses can avoid wastage, ensure consistency, and create compelling and innovative experiences for their audiences.
