Innominds · AR/VR Initiative

An AR Initiative From Concept to Field

Built the case, designed the experience, validated it on live installations — 60% faster, zero support calls.

60%

Reduction in installation time

Tech support calls for signal verification

Full

Product line QR adoption — permanent infrastructure

Role

Design Lead

Company

Innominds for Cradlepoint

Scope

AR Product Design

Type

Mobile AR · Digital Twin · QR Integration

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AR overlay concept — phone camera showing step guidance and live signal verification on Cradlepoint hardware

The Insight

The PDF fixed portability. It didn't fix attention.

Field technicians installing Cradlepoint hardware carried a digital manual on their device. But every time they needed to check a step, they stopped, unlocked, navigated to the right section, read the instruction, put the device down, and continued. Then repeated. Then called tech support after installation to verbally confirm signal strength — because there was no on-site verification without specialist equipment.

The real insight

The technician's problem isn't information access — they have the manual. The problem is that the information isn't connected to what they're looking at. The guide exists in one world; the hardware exists in another. Every reference breaks focus on the physical task. AR closes that gap.

I built the case for this and presented it to Cradlepoint's leadership. The pitch wasn't about the technology. It was about the cost of broken attention — multiplied across hundreds of installations per week. Every unnecessary call to tech support has a cost: the technician's time, the support agent's time, and the risk that verbal guidance over the phone introduces a new error.

Key Decision

Phone AR over headsets — a deliberate, pragmatic choice

The obvious question when proposing AR for field technicians: why not a headset? HoloLens or smart glasses would give hands-free operation. I explored this seriously before rejecting it.

✕ Considered & Rejected

Headset AR — HoloLens / Smart Glasses

Significant per-unit cost across the full technician workforce. Fragile hardware in field conditions. Requires training on a new device class. Long procurement and deployment cycle.

Cradlepoint leadership would not fund it — and they were right to question the ROI timeline.

✓ Chosen

Mobile AR — phone camera overlay

Technicians already carry smartphones on every job. Zero additional hardware cost. Deployable immediately. Familiar interaction model. Sufficient AR accuracy for installation guidance at the distances involved.

The right technology is the one that fits the reality of the people using it — not the one that looks most impressive in a presentation.

What Was Built

Three things, working together

The solution had three interdependent components. I designed the UX across all three and worked directly with the Unity development team to bring the AR experience to life.

Scan the device

A QR code unique to every hardware model was introduced across the full product line. The technician scans — the correct installation guide for that exact model loads instantly. No searching, no model lookup, no wrong guide.

QR Integration

Follow the AR overlay

Step-by-step guidance is overlaid directly on the device through the phone camera. Arrows, highlights, and indicators appear on the actual hardware the technician is looking at. Attention stays on the device; the instruction comes to them.

AR Overlay

Verify with the digital twin

Once installation is complete, the digital twin shows live signal strength and coverage data on screen. The technician confirms the setup is within spec — on their own device, in real time — without calling anyone.

Digital Twin

Impact

60% faster. Zero calls.

Validated on live installations with field technicians in the US — not projected, not estimated.

60%

Faster installation

The most direct measure of the technician experience improvement — time on-site reduced across the full install sequence

Support calls for verification

Eliminated entirely by the digital twin integration. The phone call to tech support is gone — not reduced, gone.

Full

Product line QR adoption

QR codes introduced across all Cradlepoint hardware — a permanent infrastructure change that outlasts this project

Reflection

The best design proposals don't lead with the solution

The hardest part of this project wasn't the AR design — it was the pitch. Proposing something unfamiliar to leadership in a hardware company requires translating the UX problem into language that connects to what they actually care about: operational efficiency, support costs, and technician utilisation.

The principle that stayed with me

I didn't pitch AR. I pitched the cost of a phone call multiplied by hundreds of installations per week. AR was the solution. The problem was the one leadership already owned. Designing for phone-based AR in an enterprise hardware context — before AR was a mainstream conversation — meant designing without precedent. Every decision about overlay density, step pacing, and one-handed interaction had to be reasoned from first principles.