Augmented Reality (AR) Lenses: User Experience on Snapchat.

Augmented Reality (AR) is established in a wide range of fields, but a specific area of application is AR content on social media. Because AR content can be a business offering, new opportunities are arising to present products and services to users of social media. AR filters or lenses may be published by companies either as advertising or as generic content on their social media profiles. Our study tested the generic branded AR lenses on the platform Snapchat™ for user experience. We conducted a user test with 27 Snapchat users using 3 different generic branded AR lenses. We recorded participants' experiences using the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) and individual short interviews. The latter included questions about personal preferences and the perceived augmentation quality, as augmentation quality has been proven important to the UX of AR. Our analysis of the data shows that AR lenses can achieve a good result in the UEQ scale Novelty and that the Attractiveness is above average. However, the results also indicate that the generic branded AR lenses need improvement in aspects related to usability. Additional interview questions revealed that the augmentation quality of generic branded AR lenses has not always been perceived positively, yet the UX of these lenses should be important to businesses that want to invest in this technology. Poorly implemented AR applications can compromise users' experience and, consequently, negatively impact a company and its brand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]