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Comment by konschubert | Hacker News Reader

I don't think people will browse the catalog online like they did it with the book.

When another app is just a flick away, people will jump off much more quickly than with a book.

I know I will.

I don't know what it ended up becoming as I have not used IKEA online since long time, but I remember that the mantra back then was, that they wanted the assembling manual put online (how to put your IKEA furniture together). Back then, 20 some years ago, it was their key mission to provide an easy help with putting the furniture together. They did realize very early on that an online catalogue must be more that just a page with pretty pictures. They wanted to create a universe for each individual product and make it very easy for you to figure out how to put the furniture together. I remember dedicated workshops where we talked about Virtual Reality Headsets, 20 years ago as a tool to help people assembly the IKEA product. Their wet dream was that you pick up a box at your local IKEA store, put on your headset and then you will be guided for dummies through the assembly process. This is 20 years ago.

Today, every time I hear about Microsoft HoloLens I think about these IKEA workshops. The mission for Microsoft HoloLens and the IKEA catalogue is in total alignment. Everything Microsoft wants to do with their headset, IKEA wanted to do with the catalogue 20 years ago. I am confident that there is an Microsoft HoloLens/IKEA working group out there somewhere prototyping this exact thing. Microsoft HoloLens and IKEA catalogue is a very cool combination.

I would love to have something like VR-assisted assembly for household, car or computer repairs. I think IKEA has attempted to design their stuff so that it doesn't require that level of guidance for the most part.

That is the promise of Microsoft HoloLens and similar devices to enable that scenario.

I can tell you that the last thing I want to do when assembling an ikea shelf is to keep unlocking my phone :)

I've been trying to use the website because I miss going to ikea and let me tell you... it's bland like amazon.com but much less usable...

Yes, that would not work. It would have to be a hands-free operation as in a headset. You cannot both use both hands to assembly a furniture and then hold you phone at the same time.

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