Headless CMS: The key to cutting-edge augmented reality (AR) experiences

Highlights

You’ll learn how a headless CMS revolutionizes AR content delivery by:

• Offering flexibility for developers to use AR-specific frameworks
• Ensuring content consistency across platforms
• Enabling faster testing, iteration, and updates
• Supporting omnichannel delivery for immersive experiences

Key benefits:

• Centralized content management
• Real-time updates via APIs
• Scalability for complex 3D assets
• Future-proofing for Web3 and Metaverse 

Augmented Reality (AR) overlays digital content onto real-world environments, giving users an interactive experience. This impacts industries where immersive experiences can redefine customer experience and learning methods, such as retail, education, and entertainment. 

The success of AR hinges on effective content delivery, and that is where a headless CMS comes into play. It supports the dynamic content needs of AR projects.

What is a headless CMS?

A headless CMS is a modular content management system that decouples content management and website rendering. It is different from traditional CMS, where the front end and back end are tightly coupled and work as one system.

By separating content storage from its presentation, businesses can manage content centrally and create custom front-end experiences. The use of APIs ensures that AR applications can pull and display content in real-time, enhancing user experiences.

Benefits of using headless CMS for AR and VR experiences

The headless architecture supports live streaming, on-demand video, and AR and VR content. It holds your content, giving you the freedom to decide where and how you want it displayed. Here are other reasons to use a headless CMS for AR/VR content delivery.

• Flexibility: A headless CMS is not tied to any single front-end framework. Hence, developers can build front-facing content and apps with any framework suitable for the project. In this case, that would be A-Frame, AR.js, WebXR, etc.
• Content consistency: It provides a central repository that acts as a single source of truth. So, you can manage digital assets like videos, 3D models, and images. This ensures that AR experiences remain consistent on all platforms.
• Faster testing, iteration, and updates: A headless CMS allows you to make changes to AR or VR scene properties easily. It offers a view of the AR technology asset, enabling you to test and implement changes on the fly.
• Omnichannel delivery support: A headless CMS enables omnichannel experiences and personalized content delivery for AR/VR. So, retail brands can deliver immersive shopping experiences across all channels, including physical stores, online, and mobile platforms.

Case studies

Simmons & Simmons

Simmons & Simmons’s Sitecore CMS relied on manual processes, making web updates slow and cumbersome. Most operations, and even simple content edits, needed hard coping and extensive development work.

Contentstack headless CMS enabled them to recreate sections of their website without writing new code. It also increased their page load speed and content updates.

Hear from the Digital Business Analyst, Taslima Yousuf. “We wanted to have complete presentational control. We also wanted a distributed application ecosystem where we weren’t tied to any specific product. There was no way to do that before. Contentstack was the simplest headless CMS we saw, with an intuitive user interface and customizable models.”

Keep reading to learn how Simmons & Simmons took control of its content management.

Miami Heat

With the growth of mobile applications for sports content, Miami Heats was lagging as their Tridon CMS did not offer the required features. It was costly to maintain, and it could not scale or customize content. Hence, fans could not receive content updates via smart and mobile devices.

Contentstack’s headless CMS allowed them to deliver personalized content for mobile applications, improving fan engagement and leading to 100% sales growth.

Hear from Matthew Jafarian, the Executive Vice President, on the impact of the changes, “The best part was that the new platform is customizable to meet all our content team’s needs without requiring highly complex development.” 

Keep reading to learn how the Miami Heat delivers personalized experiences via a headless CMS.

Building AR apps with headless CMS

To build AR applications with a headless CMS, developers must follow several key steps:

1. Define content structure: Consider your content needs and factor in the needs and preferences of users and customers. Establish a clear content model that outlines how data is organized within the headless CMS.
2. Develop API endpoints: Create API endpoints to facilitate communication between the CMS and AR app. Decide the API architecture. Use the API Gateway approach, as it is consistent and reusable. Develop the API, implement search by and pagination criteria, and test its performance. Finally, document the APIs.
3. Design front-end experience: Decide on a suitable framework to build your front-facing AR application. You may choose between options like A-Frame or WebXR to design the AR interface.
4. Implement real-time updates: Ensure the CMS supports real-time content updates to maintain application relevance.

By following the above steps, you will be ready to build your augmented reality apps and interface using a headless CMS. However, this is an iterative process, and you still need to monitor the system to ensure its performance.

Managing AR/VR experiences with a headless CMS

Managing content for AR and virtual reality (VR) requires a robust system capable of handling large volumes of 3D models and assets. This is another area in which a headless CMS thrives. Given it is cloud-native, it offers limitless storage resources and guarantees high up times. 

Aside from that, it provides a centralized repository for these elements, enabling efficient updates and ensuring content consistency across AR/VR experiences. Also, both the content and development teams can work in parallel. The content team manages the AR elements in the back end while the developers work on delivering a suitable front-end experience. 

Empowering content creators and developers

Developers can access frameworks like Unity, A-Frame, WebXR, Apple’s ARKit, or Google’s Google’s ARCore. These tools allow them to create rich AR content while visual page builders and APIs enhance creativity and productivity. They also streamline the content creation process, which allows teams to deliver compelling AR experiences.

Enhancing creativity

With a headless CMS, content creators can innovate without technical constraints. They can optimize content and preview it. They can also test and iterate changes, all without relying on developers to hard code the system. 

Evaluating ROI for AR/VR solutions with headless CMS

The value of a headless CMS in delivering AR experiences can be measured by tracking specific metrics, evaluating its cost reduction, and also considering its impact on customer engagement.

AR project success metrics

How can you track the success of their AR and VR projects? Setting out the right metrics is always a good place to start. Such metrics include user engagement, conversion rates, and customer satisfaction scores. A headless CMS can facilitate data collection and analysis, providing insights into project performance.

Cost reduction

A headless CMS supports content reuse. You can create AR experiences from existing content. Given its modular design, you can add features without redeveloping the entire system. This saves costs. Hence, a headless CMS delivers a significant return on investment, making it ideal for the modern business enterprise.

Future-proofing AR projects with headless CMS

A headless CMS future-proofs AR projects by providing enhanced API integration, efficient content management, and cross-platform compatibility. It allows for seamless updates, supports complex asset management, and adapts to new technologies. That ensures AR applications remain dynamic, responsive, and relevant.

Preparing for Web3 and the Metaverse

A headless CMS provides the infrastructure to support the transition to Web3 and the Metaverse. It can integrate with blockchain technology to support a decentralized content management approach. Its decoupled approach also supports decentralization, as the back-end content repository can deliver content to multiple platforms. 

With its modular and decoupled approach, you can isolate faults and restrict attacks to only the first point of contact. This provides a layer of data security that web3 technology can build on.

A headless CMS also offers digital assets management (DAM). So, it can be used to manage and deliver Web 3 and Metaverse assets, such as 3D models and NFTs.

FAQ section

What is a headless CMS, and why is it important for AR?

A headless CMS is a content management solution that treats the back end and front end as separate concerns. It delivers content via APIs and supports integration with any front-end device. This makes it suitable for AR projects, where content must be adaptable and responsive to different user environments.

How can a headless CMS enhance omnichannel AR content delivery?

It centralizes content management and enables API-driven distribution. That ensures that businesses can deliver consistent and real-time content experiences as customers move across multiple channels.

What are the benefits of a headless CMS for VR experiences?

A headless CMS supports multichannel publishing. So you can publish on multiple channels, including AR/VR apps. It offers ease of updates, content consistency, and the ability to manage complex 3D assets, making it ideal for VR applications and experiences.

Learn more

Incorporating a headless CMS into your AR and VR projects unlocks possibilities, offering flexibility, AR content personalization, and on-demand content delivery. The headless architecture offers a scalable platform, allowing you to plug into the latest technologies, trends, and opportunities.

Contentstack offers the industry-leading API-first and cloud-native enterprise headless CMS. It is equipped with live preview, modular blocks, and taxonomy. These features enable you to organize and adjust content for different audience segments, visualize content before publishing, and streamline workflows. Take advantage of Contentstack’s headless solution to deliver AR experiences that move the needle. Talk to us today to get started.