Augmenting for purchasing with mobile: Usage and design scenario for ice dessert

As a prominent technology most tech-savvy retailers turning to, Augmented Reality (AR) is seen today as a sales marketing instrument to dramatically enhance the brand experience. This paper underlines characteristics of a group of products with a lot of assortments, mostly seen in the food retail industry. The ice dessert scenario is used to motivate the need for a digital facilitator because paper menus or physical displays are not able to showcase every possible combination of flavors and toppings. In order to get the design, a task analysis is performed and interaction requirements are acknowledged according to the interaction design principle. The prototype, which comprises of an iOS AR application and a web application, is developed. The ice flavors and toppings are augmented over the real cone/cup by the customer himself. The customer is able to see what he will get with his order as it is shown in real-time on the mobile screen before he can then order the preferred combination from the smartphone and the parlor will receive it through the web application. The interactive nature of the application assists not only in completing the purchase efficiently and effectively, but also in enhancing overall customer experiences, and attracting more customers.