Divergent 3D · AR Car App
An AR app that brings car
buying into your living room
Role
Lead Product Designer
Context
4 person team
Timeline
2-week sprint
Tools
Figma
01 - Context
Divergent 3D makes structural car parts with 3D printing. Their parts are lighter and stronger than ones built the old way.
The business problem was simple to say and hard to solve. How do you get a buyer excited about technology hidden inside a car? We answered it with augmented reality. The app lets a buyer place a real-scale car in their own space, customize it, and explore Divergent's parts in context. We built it white-label, so any brand could adopt it.
Divergent wants to sell technology you can't see
02 - Research
I studied the field before designing
I ran three things at once. A competitive audit, two surveys, and six interviews. Together they showed what users wanted and where every rival app fell short.
Compettitive audit, scored by severity
The Competitor Analysis
I reviewed four existing car AR apps (Porsche AR Visualizer, Forma Car, 3D Tuning, and AR Showcase) against usability heuristics, and rated each issue by severity. The same failures kept repeating.
What people told us
100 % of people we surveyed research their car online before buying. So an app that helps them explore at home meets a real habit.
88% still buy at a dealership, the place they dislike most. Price and color were the top two factors. Two surveys of 17, plus six in-depth interviews.
Reference: Competitor teardown
Who I designed for
All of this pointed at one person. I built the work around "Max," the buyer at the moment of his first luxury car.
03 - Prioritize
Deciding what to ship in two weeks
We had a long wish list and a short timeline. I ran a feature prioritization to decide what made the prototype and what waited.
The hardest call was cutting the test-drive simulator. It was the flashiest idea on the board. But research was clear: people wanted to explore and price a car, not fake-drive one. I spent that time on pricing and easy customizing instead.
04 - The Flow
One path from empty room to finished car
Rival apps made you leave the screen or pinch-zoom to see anything. I mapped a single path that keeps the car in full view the whole time.
Customizing branched into Exterior, Interior, and Engine. A hamburger menu held the car garage and the About section. Any feature was a tap or two away.
05 - Prototyping & Testing
I tested at every stage, with 3 users each round, and let each round change the next. This is the loop. The reasoning behind the changes comes later.
Three rounds, three fidelities
06 - The Final Design
The hi-fi walkthrough
The finished prototype walks an enthusiast from an empty room to a fully customized BMW i8, with honest pricing the whole way.
Start sequence
branded loading dial
Exterior & pricing
radial menu, live total
How to Get Started
Scan, Place, Customize modal
Interior view
sit-inside cockpit view
AR placement
scan a surface, car appears
3D-printed frame
the chassis view
07 - Design Decisions
What I chose and what I skipped
08 - Outcomes & Next Steps
Where it landed, and what I'd do next
We delivered a tested hi-fi prototype, built on three rounds of real feedback. Users could place a car, change its paint and rims, view the interior and chassis, and see live pricing, all without a salesperson. The start sequence and branding tested well from the first screen.
