ARCore Design Guidelines

Overview

ARCore Design Guidelines are Google's official UX and visual design recommendations for building augmented reality experiences. They cover how to plan, prototype, and test AR interactions that feel natural and safe for users.

The guidelines address core AR design concerns: environment size and type, user movement, physical safety, visual realism, content placement, and interaction mechanics. They are intended for designers and developers building AR apps on Android and iOS using ARCore.

Key Benefits

• Covers safety and comfort rules to prevent users from colliding with real-world objects while using AR.
• Provides guidance on matching virtual content to real-world lighting using ARCore's Lighting Estimation API.
• Explains how to place content that stays anchored to surfaces using ARCore's anchor system.
• Recommends interaction patterns for touch, gesture, and gaze-based input in AR.
• Addresses different environment sizes — from tabletop to room-scale to outdoor AR experiences.
• Includes guidance on motion design and visual feedback to signal system state to users.

How It Works

Designers read through guideline sections organized by topic — environment, safety, realism, content placement, and interaction. Each section provides rationale, do/don't examples, and implementation notes tied to ARCore APIs. Teams then apply these patterns when building AR app prototypes or final products using ARCore on Android, iOS, or Unity.

Use Cases

• AR/UX designers planning the user flow and safety guardrails for a furniture-placing app.
• Game developers designing room-scale AR games that require players to move around a physical space.
• Industrial designers prototyping how a virtual prototype appears at full scale inside a real room.
• Mobile app teams adding AR features to an existing e-commerce or education app for the first time.
• Interaction designers testing gesture-based controls for manipulating virtual objects in 3D space.
• Accessibility specialists evaluating how AR interactions affect users with limited mobility or vision.