After synthesizing findings from market research, competitive analysis, secondary and primary research our team identified two major takeaways.

The average homeowner has little to no experience with Augmented Reality applications. Many interviewees had only beginner to intermediate familiarity with AR but believed it would have greatly helped during renovation planning.

Users valued customization highly. Renovation involves many decisions and having a visual representation of the bathroom design would make those decisions easier.

The PUX team interviewed six individuals in the proposed user group, all of whom had experience making large purchases through home remodeling applications.

Each team member also evaluated an AR application to understand what features were effective and which should be avoided when designing an AR bathroom remodeling experience.

The goal was to understand how users approach shower purchases from the earliest stages of consideration.

• What exactly are they trying to customize?
• Why is customization important?
• What would make them confident in their choices?

Using insights from interviews, the team created a journey map detailing the user's experience before even opening the application.

This journey illustrates how users progress from renovation intent to discovering UpHome’s application and ultimately purchasing a shower.

The design focused on reducing decision fatigue by segmenting shower accessories into categories. Within each category users could select components and immediately see AR updates.

AR prototypes were developed to demonstrate the customization flow to stakeholders and were used throughout evaluation and concept validation.

The team created low fidelity layouts using Whimsical to explore navigation patterns and screen structure.

Initial testing revealed the need for additional customization screens beyond the showerhead view.

Bodystorming sessions helped evaluate how AR interactions function in physical environments.

This project required balancing academic coursework with a fast-paced product design timeline during the pandemic. Adapting to remote collaboration and new workflows initially presented challenges, but it ultimately strengthened our ability to communicate, iterate, and validate ideas quickly as a team.

Throughout the project, I contributed across multiple stages of the design process, most notably prototyping the Augmented Reality shower models and facilitating the bodystorming evaluation method. These activities helped us test how users might interact with shower configurations in a physical context before committing to final interface decisions.

Frequent feedback sessions with Purdue faculty and the UpHome product team helped refine the direction of the solution. Ultimately, UpHome saw value in the proposed concepts and implemented elements of the design into their website, validating the impact of our research and design process.