Why Eight Weeks for AR Projects?
AR experiences of moderate complexity—product visualization, virtual try-on, or location-based marketing activations—typically require 6-10 weeks from initial brief to public launch. Eight weeks represents the optimal balance between thorough development and market responsiveness, assuming clear requirements, available assets, and experienced development resources. More complex projects (multi-feature apps, custom tracking solutions) may extend to 12-16 weeks, while simpler implementations can compress to 4-6 weeks.
This timeline assumes a dedicated team working with reasonable stakeholder availability and decision-making velocity. Projects frequently extend due to approval delays, asset provision lags, or expanding scope during development rather than technical complexity. Understanding the week-by-week flow helps businesses plan realistic schedules and identify potential delay points requiring proactive management.
Weeks 1-2: Discovery and Requirements Definition
Week 1 focuses on understanding business objectives and technical constraints:
- Stakeholder workshops: Align on campaign goals, target audience, success metrics, and core user journey
- Technical audit: Assess existing assets (3D models, product photography), platform requirements (iOS/Android/WebAR), and integration needs
- Competitive analysis: Review similar AR implementations identifying best practices and differentiation opportunities
- Feasibility validation: Confirm technical approach suits products, materials, and user context (indoor/outdoor usage)
Week 2 delivers comprehensive project definition: detailed functional specification documenting every user interaction, technical architecture proposal covering platform choices and performance targets, content requirements list specifying all 3D assets and media needed, and project timeline with milestone dates and stakeholder checkpoint scheduling.
Week 3: Concept Development and Visual Design
Visual concept development establishes the AR experience look and feel before significant technical investment. Deliverables include: UI/UX wireframes showing AR controls, onboarding flow, and navigation structure; visual design mockups presenting color schemes, typography, and brand integration; interaction prototypes demonstrating gesture controls and feedback animations; and content hierarchy defining which product information displays in AR versus supporting screens.
This week requires intensive stakeholder collaboration as design decisions significantly impact development complexity and timeline. Changes during design cost days; equivalent changes during development cost weeks. Comprehensive design review and approval before Week 4 prevents expensive mid-development pivots.
Weeks 4-5: 3D Asset Creation and Optimization
Parallel workflows accelerate these weeks—development team builds AR framework while 3D artists create product assets. Asset creation activities include:
- 3D modeling: Creating or optimizing product models meeting AR platform polygon and texture constraints
- Material definition: Establishing PBR materials accurately representing product surfaces under varied lighting
- Animation preparation: Rigging and animating products requiring motion (opening doors, rotating components)
- Quality assurance: Testing assets across target devices ensuring performance meets acceptable frame rates
Asset optimization proves critical—overly detailed models cause performance issues, oversimplified models disappoint visually. Target specifications typically include: 20,000-50,000 polygons per product for mobile AR, single 2K texture maps, and file sizes under 5MB for acceptable loading times on mobile connections.
Weeks 6-7: Development Sprints and Integration
Week 6 focuses on core AR functionality: camera feed integration and tracking initialization, 3D model placement and scaling logic, user controls for rotation, movement, and interaction, and lighting and rendering setup ensuring product appearance quality across environments.
Week 7 adds supporting features and integrations: onboarding tutorial guiding users through AR controls, screenshot and social sharing capabilities, analytics implementation tracking user interactions, e-commerce integration (add to cart, product information), and performance optimization addressing any frame rate or loading issues identified during development.
Agile development methodologies work well here—daily standups maintain momentum, mid-week builds enable early stakeholder feedback, and flexible prioritization accommodates discoveries during implementation.
Week 8: Testing, Refinement, and Launch
Final week activities ensure production readiness. Testing covers: device compatibility across iOS and Android hardware range, network condition variations (4G, 5G, WiFi), user acceptance testing with representative audience members, and edge case handling (poor lighting, unusual environments, user errors).
Launch preparation includes: app store submission and approval (iOS typically 24-48 hours, Android faster), marketing asset creation (screenshots, demo videos, press materials), support documentation and FAQ preparation, and analytics dashboard configuration for post-launch monitoring.
Soft launch to limited audience before full public release enables final validation and issue identification with minimal exposure. Reserve 2-3 days post-launch for rapid response to any unexpected issues discovered at scale—even thorough testing cannot replicate all real-world usage patterns and device variations.