Portfolio / Automotive Retail Innovation

Mixed Reality · Product Experience · Delivery

Blending Digital and Physical: Redefining the In-Store Car Experience

A mixed reality retail experience that made hard to display accessories tangible, interactive and commercially credible inside the dealership.

Experience Designer & XR Workstream Lead
National automotive dealership network
Concept to production handover
15
Use cases researched and prioritised
4
Accessory families specified
28
Page production handover
01 Opportunity02 Research03 Concept04 Interaction05 Delivery06 Decisions07 Outcome08 Learnings
01Opportunity

Headsets existed in dealerships. A meaningful next use case did not.

Mixed reality hardware had already been introduced across the dealership network, but the experience roadmap largely stopped at displaying additional vehicle models. The challenge was to identify a use case that solved a real retail problem and justified continued investment.

Customer problem

Roof boxes, bike racks and ski carriers were often unavailable on site. Customers could not easily understand scale, fit, function or how a product would look on their own vehicle.

Business opportunity

Make aftersales products visible and explorable at the moment of consultation, while giving dealers a more engaging way to communicate value and support accessory sales.

02Research & Prioritisation

From a broad innovation search to a validated retail direction

I helped move the team beyond technology first ideation. We combined desktop research, expert interviews, dealer and aftersales stakeholder input, and survey validation to compare opportunities across gaming, music, entertainment and retail.

15
Detailed use cases in the initial longlist
4
Opportunity territories compared
1
Retail concept prioritised for delivery
Phase 01
Explore

Built the opportunity space

Created detailed concepts for 15 potential mixed reality use cases using market research and expert perspectives.

Phase 02
Understand

Connected ideas to dealership reality

Interviewed dealership and aftersales stakeholders, surfacing low product availability and limited customer interaction as recurring commercial pain points.

Phase 03
Validate

Prioritised with evidence

Used survey feedback and stakeholder input to compare concepts and select the aftersales retail experience for further development.

03Experience Concept

Let customers place digital accessories onto a physical or digital vehicle

Inside the dealership, customers could use a mixed reality headset to explore different vehicle models and add products such as roof boxes, bike carriers and ski racks. The concept supported both a fully digital vehicle and digital accessories mapped onto a physical car.

01

Choose the vehicle

Start with a physical showroom car or a digital model positioned in the space.

02
i

Discover hotspots

Highlighted information points reveal where products and vehicle information can be explored.

03

Select accessories

Open the aftersales menu, compare product variants and place the selected item on the vehicle.

04

Inspect in detail

Switch into presentation mode to view form, dimensions, capacity and functional details from every side.

04Interaction Design

A modular interaction system for products, states and variants

The delivery work went beyond a high level concept. I specified how customers discover, activate, configure and inspect each accessory, including the transition between default, interaction and presentation states.

01

Modular hotspots

Reusable information points could be positioned on both physical and digital vehicles, creating one interaction grammar across future products.

02

Animated product assembly

Accessories unfold step by step on the vehicle while dimensions, weight and functional information appear in context.

03

Tangible capacity

Customers could vary the number of bikes, skis or snowboards and open the roof box to understand usable volume through familiar objects.

04

Guided dealership setup

The service supported a customer in the headset and dealership staff using an external device to guide, explain and manage the experience.

05Delivery & Handover

Turning an innovation concept into a production ready specification

I translated the selected concept into a detailed handover covering flows, states, variants, vehicle dependencies, content needs and production priorities. This gave the external asset team a concrete basis for estimation and implementation.

Production handover
28

Pages of interaction detail covering the intended customer experience and the requirements needed to produce it.

01
Four accessory families

Roof mounted bike carrier, tow bar bike carrier, roof box and ski or snowboard carrier, including relevant variants.

02
Three interaction states

Default, active interaction and isolated presentation states, with transitions and expected customer behaviour.

03
Two vehicle modes

Digital products mapped onto a physical showroom car or placed on a fully digital vehicle.

04
Production dependencies

Vehicle compatibility, 3D asset creation, manual measurement, dummy content, staff controls and cost inputs.

06Key Decisions

Decisions that balanced customer value, technical quality and delivery feasibility

Question
Options
Decision
Which vehicle setup should lead the delivery?
A fully digital vehicle or digital accessories mapped onto a physical showroom car.
Prioritise the physical vehicle setup for immediate retail relevance, while keeping the interaction model reusable for digital vehicles.
Question
Constraint
Decision
How should customers inspect product detail?
Accessories attached to the vehicle could lose visual clarity at normal viewing distance.
Add a dedicated presentation state that isolates the product and supports closer inspection from every angle.
Question
Evidence
Decision
Which innovation territory deserved investment?
Research and stakeholder interviews highlighted low accessory availability and limited interaction in dealerships.
Focus the first extended mixed reality use case on aftersales retail rather than entertainment alone.
07Business Case & Outcome

A concept strong enough to secure approval and production investment

I helped build a range based business case from dealership headset availability, estimated sales, expected conversion, additional accessory revenue and the cost of producing the mixed reality assets. Both conservative and realistic scenarios supported the investment decision.

01

Dealerships equipped with mixed reality hardware

02

Estimated dealership sales volume

03

Accessory conversion driven by the experience

04

Potential additional accessory revenue

05

Cost of creating production ready assets

"Very smart idea. I wonder why I didn't think of it myself."

Client CMO, live to the cross company leadership group
5 fig.
Build investment secured
CMO
Executive approval achieved
1
Production handover completed
Impact framing: At the March 2025 handover, asset production was underway and dealership rollout preparation had started. No post launch performance data was supplied, so this case reports approval, investment and delivery readiness rather than claiming measured sales or loyalty uplift.
08Learnings

What made an emerging technology concept credible

01
Start with the retail problem, not the headset. The concept became relevant when it solved missing product availability and poor accessory communication.
02
Design the service around the device. Customer interaction, staff guidance, content production and physical showroom conditions all needed to work as one system.
03
Use technical constraints as interaction inputs. Resolution limits led to the presentation state, improving detail inspection rather than becoming a hidden implementation issue.
04
Business cases move concepts into delivery. Connecting experience value to conversion assumptions and production cost turned an innovation idea into an approved build.