Blippar, the augmented reality visual search app, has just launched a redesign of its interface, which it says refocuses the app on discovery. Unlike a traditional text-based search like Google or Bing, visual search engines like Blippar aim to help you learn more about your environment by allowing you to use your phone’s camera point out objects of interest, which the app will then analyze and attempt to identify for you.
The crux of Blippar’s interface redesign is the addition of new bubble layers, which pop up once a users has selected a blippable item. The bubbles are displayed as a web, which the user can follow to learn more about the object and things related to that object. The idea is that this allows the user to continue learning about the object after identifying what it actually is.
For example, if a user pulled up a Nikon camera, the bubble web may have a link to the origin story of Nikon, a history of its cameras, some of the latest news about the company, and maybe some links to its latest products. It can be rather addicting for curious people.
We may or may not have spent a little too long discovering new things about the stuff on our desk while writing this story, but it highlights the inherent advantages that this new visual search interface has over the its predecessor, which was much more focused on identification.
Previously, users may have stayed in the app long enough to find out what an object was, only to then leave the app to do a Google search. Now they can learn more about the object and things related to it right there in Blippar in a fun an intuitive way.
You can download the latest version of the Blippar app right now in the iOS App Store and in the Google Play Store.
