Following the release of our new website in May 2021, we’ve created a virtual reality version that allows users to engage with our content and learn about our products and services in an entirely new, highly immersive way.

Innovative access to digital content

At Fresh, we like to stay ahead of the curve. We understand that currently, VR visitors make up less than 1% of our total website traffic. But as VR and AR technology evolves—with improvements like higher-end display quality & improved framerate, reduction of motion sickness & eye fatigue, and weight decrease for longer wearability—we believe more online experiences will be consumed through the lens of extended reality (XR).

The technology under the hood

Another bonus of this initiative was experimenting with new technology: in the case of this project, A-Frame. A-Frame is a web framework for building 3D, AR, and VR experiences. In the current market, browsing the web in VR is still rare, but just like mobile browsing was rare in 2007 and is now very common, we believe XR experiences will eventually ramp up and become “normal.”

Other details about the VR Fresh website experience include:

• The experience was built to be used in the browser. It’s not a native app, making the experience accessible to a much wider audience.
• A user just needs to visit freshconsulting.com with any VR set that has a browser, at which point they will be prompted to launch the VR immersive 360-degree experience.
• Recognizing that the majority of our visitors use desktop computers, mobile devices, and tablets, non-VR headset visitors who still want to understand what the project looks like can consume the experience at xr.freshconsulting.com/xr/
• The project in its current state features parts of our work portfolio and a few examples that contain 3D elements visitors can interact with.

What’s on the horizon with XR?

Websites present an interesting opportunity to showcase new, more immersive ways of engaging with content. But exciting things are in store for AR and VR, including the opportunities listed below:

• Sleeker, more streamlined devices: As the AR technology is honed and improved, devices will become more wearable, with audio-only and camera capabilities like Amazon Echo Frames, Bose Frames, and Ray-Ban Stories.
• “Normal” smart glasses with a built-in HUD: More discrete glasses will come as well, with a heads-up display & built-in smart assistant akin to Focals by North, Vuzix next-gen wearables, Apple’s rumored AR glasses, and Google Glass.
• Glasses with AR capabilities: We also foresee glasses that pair with watches or smartphones––not AR in the traditional sense, but integrated with capabilities that are computer-powered.
• Improved pass-through features in VR: Camera pass-through improvements will allow better integration of mixed reality into everyday work, akin to the Oculus Quest 2 keyboard pass-through
• Universal clipboard features for device switching: Workflow switching between phones, computers, and VR headsets will improve to an even greater extent, and examples already exist including Apple’s Universal Clipboard and Chrome’s QR code feature.

Interested in learning even more? Check out a website we built, The Future of VR, which provides a statistical forecast of the industry as well as information about use cases, devices, and much more.

An immersive future

These are a few of the many examples of how XR—extended reality—will become more integrated into our daily lives. We’re excited to unveil VR integration for the new Fresh website and continue taking part in the conversation about how to innovate in this exciting, emergent space.