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Toyota Crown — AR Drive

An app-free WebAR experience letting buyers virtually place, explore, and test-drive the 2023 Toyota Crown from their phone — no download required.

Role

Digital Experience Producer & AR Experience Designer

creative pitch, spatial interaction design, multi-mode AR UX, technical platform research

Duration

5 months

Tools

8th Wall WebAR, Figma, After Effects

Team

Vincent Mei Creative Director

Alex Shilin AR Developer

Annie Lee UI/UX Designer

Product by

In collaboration with

Press & Media Featured in MarTech Yahoo Creative Studio Feature View 8th Wall Showcase

The Challenge

Car buyers can't touch what they can't see

The 2023 Toyota Crown was a complete redesign of a nameplate with 70 years of history — a bold bet on a new aesthetic that needed to be experienced, not just photographed. Traditional digital advertising couldn't convey the presence of the vehicle. Static images and video didn't let buyers explore the Crown on their own terms. Toyota needed an experience that would let potential buyers genuinely interact with the car before ever visiting a dealership.

The constraint was reach: a native AR app would have gatekept the experience behind a download. The solution had to be instantly accessible from any mobile browser, with zero friction between a DOOH QR scan and a fully rendered 3D Crown sitting in the user's real environment. The experience also had to support a multi-channel campaign — connecting DOOH advertising, display banners, and CTV pre-roll ads into a single interactive endpoint, while capturing actionable data on consumer preferences.

Toyota Crown AR experience showing 3D vehicle in real-world environment

The Toyota Crown rendered in a real-world environment using 8th Wall WebAR — scale and presence you can't fake with a flat image.

Left: Information architecture strategy for the multi-mode AR experience. Right: Competitor research analysis and early 3D asset cleanup for WebAR optimization.

Process

Designing a car showroom that fits in your pocket

Platform Research & Technical Scoping

I led the technical research to select and validate 8th Wall as the WebAR platform. The critical requirement was app-free delivery: any platform requiring an install would have decimated conversion from DOOH QR scans. I tested 8th Wall's image tracking, world tracking, and lighting estimation capabilities against the Crown's detailed 3D model, validating that the browser-based renderer could handle the vehicle's complexity at acceptable frame rates on mid-range devices.

Multi-Mode Experience Architecture

I designed the three-mode exploration framework as the core experience architecture. Exterior mode gives users a 360-degree walkaround — orbit, zoom, and examine the Crown from any angle. Interior mode transitions the camera into the driver's seat perspective, letting users explore the cabin. Driving mode introduces interactive touch controls for a virtual test drive experience. Each mode required distinct interaction models, and I designed the transitions between them to feel like natural spatial movements rather than UI screen changes.

Interaction Design & Hotspots

Layered over the 3D model are contextual hotspots — tappable points of interest that surface feature information without interrupting the spatial experience. I designed the hotspot system to be discoverable without being intrusive: visible enough to invite exploration, unobtrusive enough not to compete with the vehicle's visual presence. Color customization allows users to visualize their preferred Crown variant, turning passive browsing into personalized configuration.

Campaign Integration & Analytics

I designed the experience as a data collection endpoint, not just an entertainment piece. Every color selection, every hotspot interaction, and every mode engagement was tracked, giving Toyota actionable insights into consumer preferences. The entry point was deliberately friction-free: QR codes on DOOH placements, display banners, and CTV pre-roll all linked directly to the WebAR experience. I worked with the campaign team to ensure the experience landing page load time was optimized for outdoor scan contexts where users are impatient.

Full UX/UI design for the AR experience — from entry point to exploration modes with contextual feature hotspots.

Left: Interior mode — explore the cabin from the driver's seat. Right: Exterior color customization — users configure their preferred Crown variant in AR.

Key Decisions

Making a car feel real before the test drive

Technical 01

WebAR over native app for zero-friction reach

The decision to use 8th Wall WebAR rather than a native AR app was the most consequential choice of the project. A native app would have required users to download before they could experience the Crown — a 60-90 second friction window that eliminates most DOOH scan conversions. WebAR loads directly in the browser. From QR scan to Crown in your driveway: under 10 seconds. This technical choice made the entire multi-channel campaign strategy viable.

Experience Design 02

Three modes over a single AR view

A single static 3D view of the car would have been technically impressive but experientially shallow. I designed three distinct modes to mirror the real dealership experience: you walk around the car (Exterior), you sit in it (Interior), you drive it (Driving). This progression maps to how buyers actually evaluate a vehicle, making the AR experience feel like a genuine preview rather than a marketing gimmick.

Data Strategy 03

Consumer preference capture as a campaign deliverable

Most AR brand experiences measure success by session count. I designed this one to also capture what users actually preferred. Color selections and hotspot interactions became a data layer that Toyota could use to understand which Crown configurations resonated most — turning the campaign from an awareness play into a consumer insights engine.

Impact & Results

Putting the Crown in driveways before the launch

App downloads required — instant WebAR from any mobile browser

Exploration modes covering exterior, interior, and virtual test drive

Multi-channel

Campaign integration across DOOH, display banners, and CTV pre-roll

The Toyota Crown AR experience launched across a multi-channel campaign, giving consumers across digital out-of-home, display, and connected TV a direct path to interacting with the vehicle in their own environment. The experience earned press coverage from Martech, Yahoo, and 8th Wall, and demonstrated how WebAR can function as a genuine conversion tool, not just a novelty.

This project changed how I think about the relationship between technology choice and experience design. Choosing WebAR over native AR wasn't a technical concession — it was a design decision that determined the reach of the entire campaign. The lesson: the most impactful design decisions often happen before you open Figma. Platform, access model, and entry point are design choices that shape everything downstream.